Animated Musings Is Food in Animated Content as Simple as Green Eggs and Ham?

- By Mary Bredin -

We hear the phrase “we are what we eat” often, but is it also true that we eat what we watch? What are content producers feeding, literally, to our younger audiences these days? There are various studies on “branded food,” i.e., food sold with a character, and the findings are clear: it is appealing. Some of these studies are listed below. They are wordy but, overall, they confirm that what is displayed “on screen” is influential.

Where to start with food in children’s content? It is a part of family life — so it should be included in children’s content, but what does that look like? Is there a “healthy representation” or should there be none? There are many sublime scenes of food in animation, from Spirited Away and Ratatouille, to SpongeBob flipping burgers at the Krusty Krab, to Bob’s Burgers. We can all agree food is a huge part of animated content. But we now know childhood obesity is a major issue and food insecurity among children is, sadly, all too real. Perhaps it’s time to reflect on how food is represented in the stories we tell. Many broadcasters have rules around food, but perhaps the conversation needs to go wider. Is a rule such as, “You can show the ice cream cone, but not children licking the ice cream” really useful? It raises more issues than can even be considered here.

In North America, our children’s content has so many food options: snacks, cereal for breakfast, packed lunch for school and then sit-down dinner as family time. Yet, there is not much variety in the food. I am happy that the Krusty Krab patty is vegetarian (Phew!). But maybe it’s time for the steak and the slurpy in the plastic cup to leave the scene as well. The food futurist in me thinks we should all be reaching for our cricket protein shakes. (You can buy cricket protein in the supermarket now.) I think more environmental food options need to be presented. But not as the butt of the joke, either!

Too Many Snacks?

Why do so many characters need to eat a midnight snack? Maybe the recurring image can be replaced with the search for a glass of water since one can have meaningful conversations over a glass of water as well. If a character is having trouble sleeping, they could actually reach for a book. Perhaps they are up late at night because they need another blanket, as the house is cold. But at least they reflect, “We are reducing our carbon footprint.” There are alternatives to opening the fridge to deal with emotions.

I watched an episode of a preschool show where a bag of potato chips was spilt on the ground. The story point was resolved, but no one talked about the garbage or waste. Stranger still, no racoons or birds appeared to eat the discarded food! This is just one example, but the challenge is all the tiny “oh wells” make up a giant perception for children that wasting food “happens” and is okay. Do we all need to take responsibility now for the world around us as well as the imaginary worlds too? As content creators, is there a way we can make a positive impact on our future?

I love Gabby’s Dollhouse, as it was my childhood dream to play in my dollhouse. But I wonder why the best friend is “Cakey” the cupcake? Super Wish offers a world of birthday-related food fun. Miraculous’s Marinette loves her croissants, yet she is so skinny that she looks unhealthy. Big City Greens is a great show with characters that are so real, and it definitely shows good habits, but then there’s the food court, slushies, biggest sundae ever, the “pie off,” etc.

Exercising Self Control

Remember when advertising was regulated to prevent children being bombarded with “junk food” commercials? Are we now just making shows with eating all the time? Is it our issue with food we are projecting into the world?

I was chatting with a Turkish producer about food, and he said the public broadcaster pushed back on showing “rich people” food and encouraged him to make it food for everyone. That also brings up the question: Who gets to eat?

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What animation and VFX do have is an ever-growing data problem. File sizes are just part of the issue. The other is the tendency for people to save everything forever just in case At the grassroots, non-profit industry organization, Green The Bid, we started looking at this issue in collaboration with the very first post house that joined us, Cosmo Street. What started as a conversation about what post could do to support environmental change, led to the realization that there was an invisible environmental hazard.

The Cloud is a buoyant and fluffy name for massive cooling facilities. According to Decarbonizing the Digital Journey by U.K.-based Filmlocker, three percent of the world’s electricity is used to power these centers, accounting for one percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Another way to think about the impact, is that 10 terabytes of storage is roughly equal to 43 flights between Atlanta and New York.

Cosmo Street’s Jaclyn Paris, who leads Green The Bid’s best practices efforts in

I think the creative community may think about food a lot because working from home means the fridge is close by, but is it worth a discussion on how we portray all this food in our stories for children? Is it an “S and P” problem, or is it a bigger discussion? We know these shows will be around for decades, so perhaps we need a little more self control about how often we open the fridge in our imagination.

Various Studies about Food and Children:

2010 Yale study says kids preferred any food with a licensed character and strongly recommended regulating the use of licensed characters on food.

(news.yale.edu/2010/06/21/licensed-characters-food-packaging-affect-kids-taste-preferences-snack-selections)

2017 study indicates non-branded food items in the children’s programming does affect what children eat.

(pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31835631)

2018 study contends it’s not enough just to have a healthy snack; it’s still better than candy. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29056518)

Oat milk is the friendliest for the environment. (trvst.world/environment/environmental-impact-of-oatmilk-plant-based-milks) ◆ this area, understands and appreciates how we landed here. She also believes that the solution starts with education and coalition building around best practices. “Media is generated in unprecedented volume, created at higher resolutions than ever before, saved in limitless iterations with excessive redundancy and stored for undefined periods of time,” she explains. “Some files are so old that current software systems can’t realistically use them. A culture of anxiety around loss, mixed with the misconception of a clean and abundant cloud is the disastrous misunderstanding of our time. Yvette [Cobarrubias, Cosmo Street’s founder] and I joined forces with GTB to change that.”

Mary Bredin is an acclaimed kids & family content veteran, currently the creative development producer at TeamTO. She has worked at Guru Studio, Disney, Nelvana, Viasat and Canal+ over the past two decades and her credits include Jade Armor, True and the Rainbow Kingdom and Pikwik Pack.

As with everything Green The Bid does, these practices must be developed, pre-competitively, by those who have to tackle the issue firsthand. As we work to provide a consensus framework around best practices for data, here are some things that can be done immediately:

• Shed self-consciousness or shame around your contribution to the climate crisis: We are all contributors, and we can all make positive change. Take an audit of your workflow and systems, and the way you/your company store media and for how long. Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate! If you haven’t already, define active, near-term and long-term, and create a plan that is clearly defined to both internal teams and clients. Will you wipe files after delivery? In six months? Know the what, where, when and how and enact the plan partnership with all stakeholders.

• In some countries, legislation is becoming a lever for change, but we cannot wait for governmental regulation to take action. There isn’t the luxury of time, and the benefit of transforming from within is we can do it in a way that supports the industry to become a better version of ourselves. After all, we are expert at designing environments: It’s up to us to decide how we envision and create our future. ◆