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Quotes about Commercialism from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Among the novel's characters was Professor Max Gottlieb, an immunologist who criticizes the blatant commercialism of the pharmaceutical firms. Soon, however, Professor Gottlieb is forced for financial reasons to join the fictional drug company Dawson T. Hunziker and Co., Inc. Other scientists lament the professor's defection. "How could old Max have gone over to that damned pill-peddler?" a group of researchers wail. "Of all the people in the world!" remarks a young physician. "I wouldn't have believed it! Max Gottlieb falling for those crooks! ... I wish he hadn't gone wrong!" - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.)

"Perhaps in part because of our perceptions of such medical inefficacy, the eighteenth century has been frequently described as the Golden Age of quackery; certainly, it saw a great flowering of medical commercialism and ingenuity, and luxuriant growth in the medical marketplace. What it did not possess in any great measure were any identifiable alternative medicines 'because there was no defined medical establishment against which they could react'." - Roberta Bivins, Alternative Medicine?: A History (Get the book.)

"It's easy to keep track of how many doctors meet with each rep; how many offices accept samples; how many offices load up on trinkets (pens, notepads, coffee cups, calenders, clocks, and wall posters that broadcast the message that commercialism is okay); and how many docs can be rounded up for an "educational" dinner meeting. But most important, the drug companies purchase from local pharmacies individual doctors' prescribing information, so they know exactly what we prescribe, and can precisely measure the effect of their reps' office calls and enticements." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.)

"The Fast Food Trap: How commercialism Creates Overweight Children." October 31, 2003. http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/education/junk-food/the-fast-food-trap-how-commercialismcreates-overweight-children. Ruskin, Gary, and Juliet Schor. "Every Nook and Cranny: The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture." http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2005/012005/ruskin.html. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Perennial, 2002. Schoonover, Heather, and Mark Muller. "Food without Policy: How U.S. Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity." - Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track (Get the book.)

"If we only narrowly confine the issue to the use of cartoon characters (and other child-friendly practices) to market junk food, we miss the potential harm caused by commercialism more generally.47 Another reason it's important to avoid speaking about "marketing healthy foods to kids" is that it plays right into the hands of industry." - Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Get the book.)

"Another big player is Commercial Alert, which seeks to keep commercialism from "exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity, and democracy. " The Battle to Ban Soda and Other Junk Food from Our Schools The situation that most infuriates health and family groups across the political spectrum is that corporations sell their processed, often sugary snacks or sugary beverages on school grounds. Consumer advocate and social critic Ralph Nader describes this ploy as "relentless marketing to the youth that bypasses parents." - Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track (Get the book.)

"But as Susan Linn says, 'Comparing the advertisements of three decades ago to the commercialism that permeates our children's world is like comparing a BB gun to a smart bomb ... the explosion of marketing aimed at children today is precisely targeted, refined by scientific method and honed by child psychologists - in short, it is more pervasive and intrusive than ever.' Children as customers There are several reasons for marketeers' change of pitch. The first is that contemporary childreji have increasing amounts of money to spend, and increasing access to their parents' disposable income." - Sue Palmer, Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it (Get the book.)

"Subsequently, many changes occurred in farming in America, some caused by decades of economic depression, others caused by rampant commercialism. After the mid-1880s, the chemical corporations began to accumulate significant wealth and political power. Their advertising dollars and growing political clout changed the attitudes of many of the publishers, and many other publishers sold out. Progressive messages about biological approaches appeared less frequently. They did not disappear entirely, however, since there continued to be a determined and faithful market." - Will Allen, The War on Bugs (Get the book.)

"Bottom line is, there's far too much commercialism out there, and you would be well-served if you learned to start asking the question, "Who benefits from this information?" If you truly follow the money, you're going to be shocked to find where it leads you. Be a difficult patient The next strategy is to become a difficult patient; that is, a patient that doctors consider to be difficult. Why do I want you to be a difficult patient? Because difficult patients have much greater survival odds. This has been proven in several studies over the last 20 years." - Mike Adams, Spam Filters for Your Brain (Get the book.)

"An icon of modern predatory commercialism grafted onto the work of a great master. They will see that I am mocking the whole idea of icon-busting art. "It's really not that hard to create art," he announced.16 Not the way Mr. Zhou does it, certainly. But, instead of being shunned by the elite art collectors, critics, and buyers whose legs he had pulled, he was embraced—warmly—by them. Instead of slipping his paintings into their closets and admitting that they'd been had, they proudly put them on their walls after shelling out as much as $100,000 each for them." - William Bonner, Lila Rajiva, Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics (Agora Series) (Get the book.)

"Commercial Alert Works to minimize the impact of commercialism, especially on children's health. www.commercialalert.org Community Food Security Coalition A coalition of groups that address the lack of fresh, affordable, and sustainable healthy food in low-income communities by improving food systems. www. foodsecuri ty. org The Food Studies Institute Improving children's diets through an innovative and award-winning curriculum that engages kids in sensory-based, hands-on learning. www.foodstudies." - Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Get the book.) "Kids exposed to high levels of commercialism, she notes, tend to be more depressed and anxious, and suffer from lower self-esteem, headaches, stomachaches, and boredom.5 If we remain fixated on "obesity-related" concerns like the number of calories in soda, we're likely to overlook such broader societal problems affecting children. Physical activity and nutrition: seperate issues? These days, the issues of "nutrition" and "physical activity" are often needlessly linked. Sometimes, we're even asked to choose sides." - Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Get the book.) "Alarmed at the ADA's decision to enter into an unholy alliance with a candy and soda giant, I shared the news with my colleagues at the nonprofit group Commercial Alert (which works to protect children and society at large from the excesses of commercialism), triggering an interesting chain of events. First, Commercial Alert's executive director Gary Ruskin promptly issued a press release that included this pithy observation: Maybe the American Diabetes Association should rename itself the American Junk Food Association. What will it do for an encore? Start selling candy bars for M&M/Mars?" - Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Get the book.)

"In spite of the glaring commercialism in city papers and on city walls, farmers, who composed more than 90 percent of the population, still hoped that quality information could be gotten from periodicals that were devoted exclusively to rural issues and farm problems. Consequently, the demand increased for magazines that directly served the farm community. In response to these demands, the first American farm magazine appeared in 1810, titled An Agricultural Museum." - Will Allen, The War on Bugs (Get the book.)

"There are visible cases of the public demanding change (Seattle parents objecting to commercialism in schools—Chapter 6), public officials such as school principals kicking out the soft drink companies (North Community High School in Minneapolis ending soft drink contracts—Chapter 7), and editorials galore on how to deal with the obesity crisis. These signal significant changes in attitudes. The academic world has also taken notice. Beyond those who have been studying obesity for years, new disciplines are turning their attention to this topic." - Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen, Food Fight (Get the book.)

"There are a growing number of parents who are aware of this phenomenon as well, and shield their children from mind-altering commercialism by only allowing their children to watch non-commercial public television. Some might consider this extreme, but it's important to remember that the marketing tactics children are being bombarded with are even more extreme. While you may not want to impose such a restriction forever, it is a wise thing to do at least until you have had some time to do some of your own indoctrination, and children are old enough to understand more on an intellectual level." - Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C., If It's Not Food, Don't Eat It! The No-nonsense Guide to an Eating-for-Health Lifestyle (Get the book.)

"Industry publications and those of advocates feature nearly identical articles—"Schools for Sale" and "Students for Sale"—arguing that school commercialism has gone too far.40 Filling the gap are organizations such as the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education (Oakland, California) and the Center for Analysis of commercialism in Education (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)." - Marion Nestle, Food Politics (Get the book.)

"It is hard to imagine a better way to deliver fat and calories. The commercialism, particularly with food, seems to have no bounds. Will we someday encounter "Philadelphia, an Official McDonald's City" "Welcome to Wichita: Pepsi Proud," "CBS Snickers Nightly News," "The Kit-Kat Statue of Liberty," or the "Fritos Electoral College"? Forgive the sarcasm, but there appear to be no boundaries, and at some point the nation must say enough is enough. Expect More of Celebrities There is a long, star-studded list of popular people endorsing food products." - Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen, Food Fight (Get the book.)

"Although the services require consumers to purchase a special receiver and pay a monthly subscription fee, they have grown in popularity by providing a wide range of commercial-free programming that contrasts sharply with the homogenized content and aggressive commercialism of local radio. Only time will tell how satellite radio will affect the radio industry and the role of radio in American culture. Television Inventing Television, 1927-1947_ On the foggy morning of September 7 1927 in a small house at 202 Green Street in San Francisco, an obscure young inventor named Philo T." - The New York Times, The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind (Get the book.)

"Some legislators have begun to propose bills requiring schools to limit commercialism in schools. These bills are dependent on constituent support. End Tax Breaks for Contributions to Schools Coupled with Commercial Messages Corporations should not be discouraged from supporting education, but opportunities to promote products should not be a quid pro quo. Tax law should not permit financial benefit to occur from these activities." - Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen, Food Fight (Get the book.)

"Klaidman and others have particular concerns about the crass commercialism of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), a private group that sponsors a yearly conference on various cardiovascular devices. Because the organizers of these meetings fund them privately, their meetings have none of the safeguards that characterize ordinary CME courses (such as a requirement to disclose financial ties and proscriptions against the discussion of unapproved uses of drugs and devices). As a consequence, speakers openly promote products." - Jerome P. Kassirer, On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Get the book.) "This attitude exposed them to the new commercialism as well as a pervasive change in their role as professionals whose time-worn task was to put the patient first. Instead, they crossed the line and accepted profit making as an essential goal. As Dr. Kenneth Ludmerer said: "By the 1980s academic physicians were being compared with corporate executives, stockbrokers, and financial scoundrels in their greed and self-serving behavior."16 Dr. Ludmerer's quote begins to capture the social environment of the past several decades, but there were further changes subsequentiy." - Jerome P. Kassirer, On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Get the book.)

"Punk Punk rock was a "back to basics" movement that occurred in the mid-1970s, in reaction to the increasing commercialism and aging of the previous generation of rock stars. Most punk songs were simple to play, as a reaction to the increasing complexity of the music of progressive rock. Punk also tackled topics from homosexuality to radical politics that were not usually addressed by rock songs." - The New York Times, The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind (Get the book.)

"This is just the latest example of commercialism gone awry. Sports stadiums, football bowl games, and countless other enterprises have commercial sponsors. How often do we hear that some product is the "official sponsor" of some event? Unless the sponsors are wasting money, we can assume these have an impact on consumer behavior. In August 2001, the most visited museum in the world, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, began a ten-year, $16 million contract with McDonald's." - Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen, Food Fight (Get the book.)

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