Food police is out to kill Cap'n Crunch, the bullies!
Last week, there was a brief period of panic when reports came out that Cap'n Crunch was being put to rest. Yes, some rumors were circulating that the peanut buttery cereal of many childhoods that tore up the roofs of our mouths but still made us ask for more was going to be retired. Fortunately, the initial panic was put to rest, and the cereal is safe ... for now.
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The actual cereal was never actually at stake (phew!), it was Cap'n Horatio Magellan Crunch, that blue-suited pirate that's been on the box since 1963 that some thought was facing retirement under pressure from Michelle Obama and her health food posse. They don't like people marketing bad foods directly to children ... who clearly go to the grocery store and buy cereal themselves?
I have purchased my children exactly one box of sugary cereal in the seven years I've had children -- and that was for a long car ride in which I thought some Apple Jacks would be a less-messy junk food treat for the ride. They ask all the time, but I'm the parent, and I say no, except on their birthdays, which they always forget about anyway. I have more power over my children than the dear old captain, imagine that? And so should other parents, the stuff is full of sugar and other junk -- that I don't dispute.
The job of companies, however, is to market their products as best they can. Our job as parents is to feed our children and ourselves as best we can. I don't really need or want their help in doing my job, and they don't need help being prevented from doing theirs in a country with so many freedoms we usually hold dear. Food can be fun, really, and just because it is doesn't mean we or our children have to eat it all the time. Leave the captain alone, he's old!
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Fortunately, for now he hasn't been asked to walk the plank. In fact, it seems he may be coming back stronger than ever in the wake of the scare. On the cereal's website, he states:
Thanks to everyone who was asking about me! I was out on the high seas, but I'm back and not going anywhere!
He's also now on Facebook and Twitter -- such a technologically proficient pirate. So the food police failed this time (ha!), but hold onto your cereal bowls, they're not likely to stop anytime soon.
Do you think the food police is going overboard trying to kill off characters that market unhealthy foods?
Image via Israelavila/Flickr
Written by Julie Ryan Evans for CafeMom's blog, The Stir.
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