I saw kids as small as 7-8yr old drinking sugary drinks and eating lays on their way to school. Manufacturers to advertising firms to media companies all should be hanged for what they have done to kids
So yes, a lot worse. They would not be allowed to do this in a country with better regulation.
It's just infuriating that we accept that we are going to get fucked by every company that can possibly do so, in every aspect of our lives. Humans run those companies. What can we do to stop this vicious cycle, outside of guillotines?
That doesn't mean we need to just accept it and let them do whatever they want though.
What it means is we need to change the system so that companies aren't putting profits first and instead require them to prioritize product quality, employee well being, and environmental sustainability.
Profit should be a distant fourth if it's allowed at all. Frankly the idea that some amount of value is just sucked out of companies by parasites who don't contribute to the company at all is just not right.
That's the problem. The current system blows, but what is the alternative?
The issue is, it's really hard to come up with leakproof regulation. Companies have far more resources to look for loopholes than governmental agencies to design the law. An extreme example of this is the financial sector, where regulators have pretty much thrown in the towel. They just write vague law to be able to prosecute whatever after the fact.
BUT if we expect companies to behave ethically and act on that, then the incentives for businesses are effectively altered, and it's much harder to find loopholes in that.
(And no, I don't think you are right, so I don't think we should out-right extinguish them. But if you are right, we should.)
(That said, there has been examples in history when that happened. Of course, such corporation-like structures were only terminated by war. I really don't think we are anywhere near that today.)
Why do you get to decide for other people what's good for them? They buy formula with sugar (that's specified on the package, as even TFA itself admits at the very start). If you don't want to buy it, don't buy it. European regulations are not some holy truths for the entire world. Macro-nutrient guidelines in particular don't have a good track record; and come think of it, neither do European decisions implemented in the third world, historically.
By your logic, govs should not ban any pesticides, drugs, etc
1) Who said their science is fake, and what science anyway? They inform the masses of the sugar content as required. Should marketing be a crime? Or science you disagree with?
2) Who decides what is marketing and manipulation and what is just speech? I trust people who want to liberate the "masses" from "manipulation" (and such) far, far less than the most selfish psychopaths. Let the masses decide for themselves.
3) Oh, and if manipulation of masses by cheap marketing was a crime, we'd need to start with abolishing the governments.
4) And while we are at it, this NGO propaganda from guardian would be more of a crime than selling sugar!
5) I do think governments should have extremely high threshold for banning things, but "by your logic" doesn't follow. What the company is doing is completely legal, the governments didn't ban anything in this case. Some despicable activists think they know better than the governments of those other countries and the people buying stuff, and that stupid EU rules should apply worldwide. I frankly think we should ban the use of oxygen by these activists, it's highly combustible and very dangerous. It's for their own good, that they just don't see.