Newsflash: Preschoolers prefer McDonald's

The conclusion of a study which showed that kids preferred food wrapped in McDonald's packaging to the same food in generic packaging.

“You see a McDonald’s label and kids start salivating,” said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids. She had no role in the research.

Levin said it was “the first study I know of that has shown so simply and clearly what’s going on with (marketing to) young children.”

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids’ perception of taste was “physically altered by the branding.” The Stanford University researcher said it was remarkable how children so young were already so influenced by advertising.

Remarkable. Here's a partial list of things preschoolers prefer:

• Staying up past their bedtime.
  
  
• Eating candy for breakfast.
  
  
• Pushing grocery carts around the store at high speed and without regard to fellow shoppers.
  
  
• Darting out into traffic.
  
  
• Picking up the family cat by its tail.
  
  
• Repeating the same joke over and over again ad nauseum.
  
  
• Not brushing their teeth.

Feel free to add to the list.