By Its Cover

Jill Carattini, the senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, writes:

In a recent study included in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine children were shown to 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 the Golden Arches. "This study demonstrates simply and elegantly that advertising literally brainwashes young children into a baseless preference for certain food products," said a physician from Yale's School of Medicine. "Children, it seems, literally do judge a food by its cover. And they prefer the cover they know."

The most startling thing about the study with the preschoolers is how clearly we can see that a carrot in a McDonald's bag is still inherently a carrot. Yet how often are we similarly blindsided by mere wrappings? Is the mistake of a child in believing the food tastes better in a yellow wrapper really any different than our own believing we are better people dressed with the right credentials, covered by the latest fashion, or wrapped in the right theology? Covered in whatever comforts us, or completely stripped of our many wrappings, we are the same people underneath.

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