Double XP on junk food: Call of Duty promotes unhealthy eating

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, which was released Nov. 8 and is one of the most popular releases of the year, is encouraging gamers to buy junk food with “Double XP” codes on chips and soda packaging.

Pepsi products like Doritos & Mountain Dew have the code, and gamers buy these products to use in the game so they can “level up” quickly. But putting these promo codes on junk food isn’t a good choice. Promoters of the game are hurting gamers by promoting not just a game, but an unhealthy lifestyle.

I myself am a huge Call of Duty (CoD) gamer, so I bought myself some bottles of 12-ounce Mountain Dew, which gave me 15 minutes of Double XP time for each bottle. Double XP codes are on variety products, and the codes range from 15-90 minutes of Double XP time.

Double XP time helps your player in the game “level up” faster than without the Double XP. For example, in CoD Modern Warfare 3, if you kill someone, you receive 50 points. If you kill someone while using Double XP time from Mountain Dew or Doritos, you will receive 100 points for one kill.

…just for this month in November, I made some sacrifices to get Double XP although I didn’t want to buy any junk food.”

As a gamer, I have sacrificed my health over junk food just to get Double XP. I have a history with junk food addiction, but I stopped eating junk food a year ago. In 2010, I drank over 112 Monster energy drinks. I also ate a bunch of junk food. This year, I cut junk food out of my diet and I have felt much better. But just for this month in November, I made some sacrifices to get Double XP although I didn’t want to buy any junk food.

Naturally, gamers will take any opportunity to help their player level up faster. Double XP is a huge deal to most gamers, because getting their hands on these codes gives them an advantage over other players. Enticing gamers with both a fast track to leveling up and with junk food, which can be addicting on its own, is hard to resist.

Now, let’s take a look at how many minutes you receive for buying Mountain Dew and Doritos:

15 minutes for any 20-ounce Mountain Dew bottle
45 minutes for a 12-pack of Mountain Dew
90 minutes for a 20-Pack of Mountain Dew
15 minutes for any 2 & 3 ounce Dorito bag
45 minutes for a 11-ounce Dorito bag
90 minutes for a 17-ounce Dorito bag

Not all of these products are available at a liquor store, but you can find the 20-ounce Mountain Dew bottles and 2 & 3-ounce Dorito bags at liqour or convenience stores, which are common in areas that lack supermarkets (these areas are also known as “food deserts”). Eleven-ounce Dorito bags are only available at Target and 17-ounce Dorito bags are only available at Wal-Mart. These stores benefit from the junk food promotion and the exploitation of gamers, just like the video game and Pepsi does. As for the Mountain Dew packs, the 20-pack Mountain Dew is only available at Wal-Mart.

To throw the soda down the drain would be better than consuming it, but if you do that, you’re just putting your money in the trash.

Sadly, this promotion shows that the game promoter doesn’t really care about gamers’ health. Activision (the game’s publisher) and Pepsi are trying to make money off of us, even though it hurts our health. They know we can’t resist and we’ll buy the junk food because we love the game.

Gaming is not a physical activity. It doesn’t involve exercise, but encourages long hours of sitting. Adding junk food to playing CoD is a recipe for really harming your body.

These companies could have put the Double XP codes on healthy food. Putting the codes on water, 100% juices, fruit packs, carrot sticks or whole grain bread would have been great for gamers, because they would be eating healthy while playing. It might have even helped change the eating habits for some of these gamers.

Let’s think about who is playing CoD and buying junk food for the Double XP codes. Even though the game is rated “M” for mature content and supposed to be played only by people over the age of 18, many CoD players are young, and these kids are most likely to buy junk food to get codes for the game. They are the ones that need healthy food the most. They are most attracted to junk food advertising, like the Mountain Dew bottle with the label claiming to be “game fuel.”

Activision and Pepsi should consider the impact this promotion is having on all gamers, but especially its impact on youth.

logicslayer

Yes, Pepsi and Activision should monitor their impact…Or parents could do their jobs. As for the 18 and up? We’re free to make up our own minds.
Tehmojave

I disagree. How many gamers would by a juice box and fricken carrot sticks for call of duty? I wouldn’t. Mt Dew and Dorotos although unhealthy make the gaming experience so much more fun. Id buy the Mt Dew and Doritos over Carrots and Juice box even in they had codes and dew n Doritos didnt
Eric

There not promoting sh*t. Marketing research showed that a majority of gamers consumed these products anyways. Whats the difference. I drank Mountain dew for years and cut soda out of my diet over a year ago. I’m not running to the store to get double xp and breaking my diet. Leave it alone.
Kylemdavis

I think I have to half agree with you on this. When companies like Activision and Pepsi agree to these types of promotions it becomes a really quick and easy way to get some extra cash out of their customers. It’s just an unfortunate trend in gaming now that certain companies will make their games almost with the idea that there will be related content for you to buy along with its release. As far as the health aspect though, I have to disagree. Most people know that they’re eating food that is unhealthy, because unhealthy food is usually well…good. It just so happens to be the types products that are regularly attacked by those who would rather not see them in stores at all. In the end though, most consumers are smart enough to know where to draw the line.
dontbelazy

Stupid. It’s no different than any other marketing scheme. Most of these kids are already eating unhealthy anyway. It’s a perfectly fair business practice, and why should the people promoting it care whether or not you get fat? That’s your own choice. You can drink mountain dew and eat Doritos and still stay in shape. The real problem is these lazy kids who won’t put down the controller and go get some exercise and/or the parents who allow their children to play these games for hours on end. Stop trying to put the blame on businesses who do nothing wrong and take some responsibility for your own actions. It’s called accountability. And too many lazy liberal Americans out there blaming the rest of the country for the problems they could fix themselves.
- DontbelazyisDUMB
  
  hahah, your stupid, everyone knows junk food is bad, and to have fast food, it makes no difference, fast food is everywhere, that’s why our economy is bad and sh**t, you got your own opinon and stuff, i don’t care about that, but don’t be bullshiitting someone else for an awesome article. go away loser!
WOW

I agree with dontbelazy, a lot of youth now a days over do it with video games and that harms their future. success is what youth need, not video games, many youth don’t know that video games cause the brain to process slower and sometimes take so much time away from you. get a job, support your family and stay away from video games, besides all that, junk food is bad and causes many illness to the health, combining these two things will really bring your life down, and you wont reach your goal and dreams, other than that, this piece was written well done, but teens shouldn’t be playing video games.