ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the connections between children's physical activity, health, education and consumption. Specifically, we explore how the corporate (and philanthropic) commercialisation of physical activity works to tie consumerism to notions of health, physical activity, identity and the body. We argue that physical activity has become a space that is increasingly commercialised and reveal how biopedagogies of consumption (i.e. marketing/advertising policies and practices) attempt to shape children into a certain type of healthy, active citizen-consumer; a child who understands and practices movement and health in ways that closely align with ideologies of neoliberalism, capitalism, individualism and consumerism. Biopedagogies of consumption such as the sponsorship of physical activity initiatives and sports events, product placement (even of ‘healthy’ products) and the provision of free gifts such as food and sports equipment to children – often in the name of ‘fighting obesity’ or ‘promoting health’ – are far from benign or even healthy. They represent a calculated strategy by powerful players to market to children (and parents and policymakers) a ‘particular brand of health’ that is tightly tied to neoliberal notions of self-responsibility, individualism and freedom of choice. The promotion of physical activity has become far more than a means to encourage children to move and play, but a tactic to achieve the goals of multinational corporations and numerous other for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. To these ends, the reinvention of the food industry as ‘health promoting’ is now inextricably interconnected with the reinvention of children as ‘healthy’, active consumers.
