ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which healthy lifestyles education programmes – in the name of fighting childhood obesity – have employed different tactics and strategies to shape children as a particular kind of consumer citizen. Product placement was one technology of consumption that endeavours to connect branded and unbranded objects with children's understanding of health and self. The products placed within corporatised resources were not always branded products, but sometimes generic products associated with a particular industry group, such as beef and lamb, or fruit and vegetables. Students were mindful that a corporation's use of sponsorship was closely associated with their desire to develop more positive public relations and increased revenue, especially at a time when corporations were perceived as being unhealthy. An additional technology of consumption that was interconnected with technologies of sponsorship and philanthropy was that of free gifts.
