New attack ad on TV, but this one targets hot dogs
August 26, 2008
CHICAGO — A new TV commercial shows kids eating hot dogs in a school cafeteria and one little boy’s haunting lament: “I was dumbfounded when the doctor told me I have late-stage colon cancer.” It’s a startling revelation in an ad that vilifies one of America’s most beloved, if maligned, foods, while stoking fears about a dreaded disease. But the boy doesn’t have cancer. Neither do two other kids in the ad who claim to be afflicted. The commercial’s pro-vegetarian sponsors say it’s a dramatization that highlights research linking processed meats, including hot dogs, with higher odds of getting colon cancer. But that connection is based on studies of adults, not children, and the increased…
