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Comment by blintson | Hacker News Reader

This "rebranding" is obnoxious. If I was kid I'd be pissed. Kids can tell when you're bs'ing them. They're exposed to enough propaganda already.

The path to healthy food isn't in telling kids what to do, but exposing them to something better. Look at what Japanese kids eat. I _know_ kids would prefer salmon-roe onigiri and fried rice to potato chips and twinkies.

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Is Japan a good example? If any country is second to the USA in packaging products to appeal to kids (or, as you put it, "BSing them"), it's Japan:

http://japanfix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/DSC_0019.jpg http://s7.thisnext.com/media/largest_dimension/23448865.jpg

(I think this is a good thing if, and only if, the food is healthy and worthwhile to eat - as here. It's easy to rail against branding and advertising - it's harder to prove it doesn't work.)

The first of your links isn't sushi, by the way. It's a kit for making grape-flavored candy in the shape of sushi.

I learn something new every day - thanks! If I were going to be evil and do a ninja edit, I could pick any of 100s of weird, in-your-face Japanese products, but it appears I have been hoisted by my own petard on this one.

Yes. Yes it is. Just because they have lots of fancy candy packaging doesn't mean that Japanese kids eat tons of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_obesity#Japan

Just look at photos of what the Jap kids eat for lunch:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lunchinabox/1378172475/

This is actually what they eat for lunch everyday. It's amazing.

I think I misunderstood your message. What Japanese kids eat seems to be excellent and I support healthy food choices. What I sensed, however, was an unfair antagonism towards branding and packaging design as a way to achieve that. If my inference was wrong, apologies!

Cool picture but I have no idea what any of that is. Obviously rice 3 of the plates have what I would guess are eggs, beyond that there are some random vegetables about like putting lettuce, tomatoes and pickles on a hamburger.

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