Kids Love Their Nintendo More Than Junk Food

If you happen to have kids then you know that peer pressure and advertising usually combine to make it difficult to keep kids away from sugar or fast food. But according to a study by the research firm Smarty Pants, Nintendo has managed to prevail over those dietary banes.

In the firm's annual study called Young Love, more than 4,700 kids from the ages of 6 to 12 and their parents took an online survey that measures "260 consumer brands across 20+ categories." While such brands as M&Ms, McDonald's, Nickelodeon and Disney ranked high, none of them surpassed the Nintendo DS (#2) and the Nintendo Wii (#1) in popularity, further strengthening what the industry has already known: Nintendo has a strong mainstream identity.

How did other game a tech items fare?  The iPod (#12), Sony's Playstation (#14) and PlayStation Portable (#31) and Microsoft's Xbox (#42) brands all broke the top 50. But Nintendo managed to slip a few more goodies into the top 100 by getting their mascot Mario in at #50 and the GameCube (yes, the GameCube) in at #76.

The Top 10:

1. Wii
2. Nintendo DS
3. Oreo
4. McDonald's
5. M&Ms
6. Doritos
7. Nickelodeon
8. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese
9. Cheetos
10. Disney

You can get a complete list of the top 100 from the Smarty Pants site.