Blame our evolved gustatory preferences

Purpose – To argue that childhood obesity is minimally influenced by media sources. Rather, our evolved gustatory preferences for fatty and sweet caloric foods, which were adaptive in our evolutionary history, yield maladaptive outcomes in today’s plentiful environments. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is discursive relying on several literature streams to make the key points of the current paper. Findings – Obesity, whether in children, adolescents, or adults, is minimally linked to media images. The “media‐obesity” postulated relationship stems from the blank slate viewpoint of the human mind, which places undue importance on environmental cues and related socialization forces. Research limitations/implications – Highlights the fact that social scientists have expended too much intellectual capital in investigating largely illusory links between food advertising and childhood obesity, when in reality this relationship is tenuous at best. Practical implications – Policy makers should spend less time worrying about the regulation of media images as these have little effect on behaviors with deleterious consequences (including childhood obesity). Originality/value – One of the few papers (if not the only one) in the marketing literature to apply evolutionary‐based theorizing in understanding the forces that shape individuals’ food consumption habits.