I didn't want to dissolve my appetite for the wonderful
dinner Bettyann had planned for us but I did need to get something in my
stomach since I hadn't eaten at noon.
This diabetes, I contracted in my fifties, still requires that I eat
regularly, which I still have not complied with but always have good
intentions. So, while standing in line I thought of having a Kids Meal. Not much food. Then came a sense of embarrassment of sorts: "Is this
for a boy or girl?' I thought the server
was asking someone else the question as he looked at me square in the eyes. No, he was asking me. "For a
boy," I stammered. While I sat there
at the counter, eating and fiddling with the action figure I decided I could
always use it as a give-away to a boy who might come with his father or
grandfather to my shop. Then I began
reading all of the "stats," etc. of the morsels contained in box of which I was eating. It set me to wondering
about a "flap" the food police had with McDonald's over something
about feeding children fat or poison or whatever it was.
For some unknown reason, the other morning ago I thought about
it again and goggled an article from Forbes, entitled: "Foods
Tastes Better With McDonald’s Logo, Kids Say,” where the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine had showed where
children overwhelmingly prefer the taste of food that comes in McDonald’s
wrappers. The study had preschoolers sample identical foods in packaging from
McDonald’s and in matched, but unbranded, packaging. The kids were then asked
if the food tasted the same or if one tasted better. The unmarked foods lost
the taste test every time. Even apple juice, carrots, and milk tasted better to
the kids when taken from the familiar wrappings of which I had eaten a day or two before. A Happy Meal! I suppose it made me happy if not quinched my appitite. “This study demonstrates
simply and elegantly that advertising literally brainwashes young children into
a baseless preference for certain food products,” said one doctor from Yale’s
School of Medicine. “Children, it seems, literally do judge a food by its
cover. And they prefer the cover they know.”
One of these times, I'm going to check it out, for myself, by surveying
some kids eating when I order my next kids meal.
I really think that the science of advertising is often
about convincing the world that books can and should be judged by their covers.
Even before I check kid's opinion on the "greatness" of McDonald's food,
I'm going out on the limb and say they most likely will testify that they like the
taste of Mickey D's chicken nugget better than identical "nuggets from "grandmother's" stove purchased at Costco or
Publix, even if grandmother makes the best mac and cheese in the world. In thinking a bit deeper, I
realize that from an early age right through mine, branding has it's way in
telling what I think and feel, who I am, what I love, and what matters. Now, that's right down scary!
Lest I blame television and marketing entirely for the trickery
of brand recognition, I need to recognize that those rascal advertisers
continue to have employment because it works. And oh how it works. That is, long before marketers were
encouraging customers to judge by image, wrapping, and cover, we humans were
judging by these methods anyway. When the ancient Samuel was looking for the
person God
would ordain as king, he had a particular image in mind. In fact, when he first
laid eyes on Eliab, Samuel thought confidently that this was the one God
had chosen. But on the contrary, God
said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected
him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the
outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
As one who spent a portion of my early adult life in the
study of "preschooler" development methodologies I am not too startled to see how
that inherently nugget or carrot in a McDonald’s bag is the "best ever"
to a young child. Yet how often am I, too, blindsided by mere wrappings, the
cultural repetitions that mold me, the images and liturgies that shape my
affections? Is the mistake of a child in believing the food tastes better in a
yellow wrapper really any different than my own believing I am a better person dressed
with the right credentials, covered by the latest fashion, repeating the right
belief-systems? It's trickery! Covered in whatever comforts me or completely
stripped of my wrapping, I'm still the same Bill - no pun intended.
But according to one ancient writer, there is one exception.
The Apostle Paul writes of a kind of clothing that changes the one inside myself.
Thank you Paul for your taking on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when you
wrote in a letter to the Galatians: “All of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor
free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” 3:27-28
Unlike the catch and costliness of well-marketed wrappings,
the robes he describes are free. The beautiful and difficult word of
Christianity is that Christ requires only that I come without costume or
pretense.
Father, God, only You see the many wrappings that I have
collected. I'm sure there are many that
I don't even realize with which I judge the world. This morning, I come to a place of
surrendering them all. I ask You to take from my tired shoulders wrappings of self-importance
and false security. Please tear from my determined grasps those wrappings of self-pity
and shame. And then cloth my needful soul with wrappings of salvation, array me
in fresh wrappings of righteousness, giving me the hopeful liturgy of Your presence,
and remind me that I am wrapped in Your holy name from the inside out. Amen
