Draft 2

Thai Xiong

ENGL1A – MWF

March 9th, 2014

Extra Pickles on that Heart Attack please?

The issue of fast food and obesity has been around for – more than it should have. Along the years, different groups have sent their own kinds of messages to relay the truth about fast food. The three different sources I have collected are of three different genres of writing; however they all take up the controversy of fast food. Those three genres are academic journal, a comic strip, and a very interesting video.

The international Journal of Obesity looks like it should, informative and educational. Everything is very organized, complete with links and sub-links. The authors, Steen Stender, Jorn Dyerberg, and Arne Astrup, each accredited with their own background of health knowledge in Clinical and Health nutrition studies, present their materials with a thesis going against the widespread daily consumption of fast food. But it is not simply saying not to eat fast food because it’s bad, but they have studies shown to back it up. This kind of genre is created to for the general public, data for anyone who wants to absorb and use it. However, its overall demographic exposure is limited because this is a information that acts almost for reference, thus only people actually looking for it will read it. The tone of the journal stays consistently factual and its writing as well is very formal.

 On the other hand, a comic provided by daily-comix.com, is the exact opposite. It relies on humor to relay the same message, and wants to grab attention. The characters in the cartoon are drawn as stubby business men, complete with a tie and quite fat choice of people and how they’re drawn, aims to grasp to the working crowd, whom tend to eat out more because of the busy lifestyle. However, the placing of the comic, on a daily comic viewing site, allows for a broad audience, just the average consumer to view it.  Color-wise most of background and clothing on the people is plain baby blue. Then, in contrast one bright color is planted in the middle of the comic. That highlights the bag, immediately drawing attention to it; a fast food bag that closely resembles something strangely familiar, McDonalds. The visuals are not the only source of humor, but the dialogue is hugely satirical. The entire dialogue box reads as:

Heart attack with extra cheese, heart attack with bacon

, double bypass no pickles, --hey! Where’s my diabetes and large stroke? (Daily Comix)

 Each generic choice on the menu is mockingly replaced with vulnerable health conditions combined with basic condiment options like pickles and cheese. This joke is funny however, it does make the viewer doublethink how it must be to be in his shoes, and it’s that thought that is the reason why this comic was made—for us to think twice before we pay those two dollars.

On a more serious note, the video advertisement “Fast Food and Children,” targets our hearts, not our laugh organs. In full frame motion, this short clip reveals a comparison of a mother about to inject and child with “junk” as the video names it, to feeding your child fast food. The music is tense, and the child is silently drawing, in all his innocence. This combination reaches out to the hearts of any and all who have siblings and family. However, most of all, it reaches the hearts of all parents and mothers especially; ending with the line in black and white text “You wouldn’t inject your children with junk, so why are you feeding it to them?

Effectiveness of a text depends largely in part of what the genre and medium the text is actually in. For example, the academic journal would be less effective than it already was, if it had an emotional tone, trying to appeal to pathos would lessen their factual credibility. The strong point of educational articles is that they are there for reference, arguing a point with actual studies. Because the article is very formal, and presents evidence we can see and confirm, one can feel more inclined to believe and think about it more sophisticated. Now something like the comic, will seem to only create a good chuckle. But I think it’s quite effective because once the reader thinks about it, they realize they’re laughing about something that isn’t so funny after all. “Heart attack, double bypass, and diabetes, these conditions are brought to surface, reminding viewers what can really happen to them. Now that’s bound to generate some degree of over thinking. As for the video it will create a moment of sadness and compassion. For the video, its goal is achieved, and very effective it is in. However, being effective through emotional visuals mean that the effect last only until their emotional mindset disperses. Likely, the viewers will dodge fast food for a couple times…unless they forget about it in the long run. The effectiveness of this video is complex, very effective in changing the way people look at fast food there and then, but long term efforts may or may not be underwhelmed. There just simply aren’t any facts or studies shown in the video that will your brain will retain as knowledge in the future. But that goes both ways. The academic article, while it has an entirety of all the facts, doesn’t lure us in temporarily to keep enough of an audience interested to absorb these facts.  To make a huge impact on the wide demographic of people who consume fast foods, means to reach a broader demographic, however this academic article is simply stored for reference somewhere online.  

These three texts have their own distinctions, but in their own genre, they’re not always similar to each other. The biggest reason that may be the case is audience.  Because an audience is different, the entirety of the genre itself will be presented dissimilarly than its other counterparts (of the same genre). In retrospect to a genre and how it says something, it’s important to consider its layout (as discussed briefly above) and limitations. The relationship between a genre and its message and method of relaying that message is crucial to understand the best way to communicate something. A webpage has almost endless limits of information and links and other technical advantages. However, the way this is implemented matters in that in relation to the way it’s trying to say something. Being on the web means that only those with electronics at hand will have access to it. However, newspapers, or videos, advertisements have the advantage of physically being there. The fact that something is in your hands, and you are reading it, seeing it, alters how a message can be stated.

When we eat junk food, fast food, we become them, fat, oily, and high in calories. The same thing follows for what we read. We are constantly shaped by the texts that we read and see daily. We aren’t only what we eat; we’re also what we read and see. If one surrounds themselves with a certain genre, say, videos that talks about fighting fast food corporations, more likely than not you will grow to be against fast food. Yet at the same time, we are bombarded with advertising campaigns that do just the opposite, promoting fast food.

Sources Cited

 “Fast Food.” Daily Comix. Nd. Web. February 21, 2014.

< http://www.daily-comix.com/fast-food-kind-like-that-comic-1171.html>

“Fast Food and Children.” Youtube. April 23, 2011. Web. February 21, 2014

< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K3F_53Sn34>.

Steen Stender, Jorn Dyerberg, and Arne Astrup. “Fast food: Unfriendly and Unhealthy.” International Journal of Obesity.31. (April 24 2007): 887 – 879. Web. February 21, 2014. < http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v31/n6/full/0803616a.html#aff1>.