Soon the NFL and Disney will be united in a common project. No, it’s not the next Space Jam with football and Mickey instead of basketball and Bugs or the latest Xbox game—it’s the fight against childhood obesity.
Last week, Manhattan public school children received a visit from New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who taught the mathematics of exercise, including keeping track of repetitions and calculating heart rate.
Manning is only one of the players actively participating in the “What Moves U” campaign, which, with the support of the American Heart Association, aims to increase much-needed physical education in schools. Already the NFL has raised $1.5 million for the program.
Meanwhile, Disney targets the other culprit of childhood obesity, an unhealthy diet. Now Disney World and other theme parks will push vegetables and fruit as side replacements for French fries and other traditional fatty foods. Like some school cafeterias, Disney also plans to ban trans-saturated fats.
Outside theme parks, by 2008, Disney public relations will stop licensing its brand and characters to food companies that sell unhealthy foods, like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Kellogg.
In the media world where Angelina Jolie and Madonna rescue African orphans, the newfound missions of the NFL and Disney seem like a hop on the bandwagon rather than trailblazing or sticking a neck out for a cause. It is the fashion.
While recent issues of The New York Times run stories of the NFL’s and Disney’s new charitable campaigns, the latest InStyle magazine runs a spread of “Grey Anatomy” actors wearing “Warriors in Pink” T-shirts to support breast cancer. ABC’s co-sponsor, Ford, has created fordcares.com, where readers can buy their own shirts. The ad is sandwiched in between photos at Emmy after-parties and “How to Look Great in Photos.”
It is hard to reconcile these acts of social responsibility with the other, more materialistic, self-interested side of entertainment and corporate industries, such as Madonna’s $10,000 mink and diamond-encrusted false eyelashes and the $15 million price tag of the 2006 Super Bowl halftime show. The one extreme makes me question the motives behind the other.
However, isn’t writing an article about homeless awareness and then deciding to sleep in rather than volunteer on a Habitat for Humanity site the same as adopting an orphan after buying $10,000 lashes on a smaller scale' That makes me as guilty as Madonna, and more importantly, the service we do perform, regardless of sincerity or motive, gets done.
The issues these organizations address are real and their contributions are significant, and it seems unwise to look charity in the mouth. Whether the NFL players want to boost their image or Disney wants to increase sales is irrelevant if their combined efforts make children healthier.
Katie Vick is a junior in the College of Arts and Science.
