Advertisers Targeting Children in Asia

Over half of eight to 12 year olds will spend their own money. This essay is about how advertisers target youth so they feel pressured to buy certain products. The three roles that advertisers play in the lives of youth are that advertisers overwhelm youth with ads, design ads to target youth so they nag their parents, and to target youth so they pressure others.

Twenty five percent of children in the US are overweight and a shocking eleven percent of them are obese (Dehghan, Akhtar-Danesh and Merchant). Child hood obesity is a forerunner to one of the United States greatest public health crisis. The growth of technology has had a major impact on childhood obesity. Obesity is a widespread epidemic and is getting incredibly worse as technology increases. The use of technology relates directly with childhood obesity because it has been proven that technology has made children live more sedentary lifestyles versus active lifestyles. Also, television commercials influence children to increase their food intake as well as advertise foods extremely high in sugar and fat. Childhood obesity is mainly caused because of personal lifestyle choices and environmental factors, such as where the child is living. (Dehghan, Akhtar-Danesh and Merchant).

Childhood obesity is a significant concern among adolescents today. In the article, “The Impact of Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity” published by the American Psychological Association, expressed the effects of advertising on youth. The American Psychological Association explained, “Almost three out of every four foods advertised to children falls into the unhealthy categories that contribute to the obesity epidemic”. Children ranging from ages, eight to eighteen, consume on average about 45 hours of various types of media per week. The link between childhood obesity and advertisement

“The rate of obesity in children has nearly tripled in the last quarter century”(American Psychological Association). Children receive the most exposure to advertisements due to the amount of television they watch and online games they play. At an early age, children shape their first opinions on what they like and dislike, so just by watching advertisements they can develop product preferences for unhealthy foods that lead to poor eating habits. “In very young children, research has found that for every one-hour increase in television viewing per day, there are higher intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages, fast food, red and processed meat, and overall calories”(American Psychological Association). Advertisements targeted at children use colorful images and characters to attract them to their products and add labels like “multi grain,” “no sugar added,” and “all natural” to influence parents to buy their products. But most of these food claims are unregulated and open to abuse. “Approximately 20 percent of our youth are now overweight with obesity rates in preschool age children increasing at alarming speed”(American Psychological Association). Naturally, being obese as children puts them at risk of being obese as adults, which can lead to health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer. In addition, advertising causes

Association, kids often do make food choices based on what they see on television. Doctors who study kids have noticed that food advertised is very powerful” (39). In order to prove that idea, the author adds that children and teens who watch more than two hours of television daily are more likely to be overweight than those who do not. Due to the many fast food restaurants and advertisements available to Americans, the realization that their food is unhealthy does not occur. The United States is aware of the consequences that come along with obesity, yet rarely ever are there advertisements promoting a healthy lifestyle. It is uncommon that an overweight person is shown eating a restaurant’s food in their commercial. It will give off the wrong

The number of obese adults now exceeds 25 percent in nearly two thirds of states. The rates of obesity in America have risen in the last thirty years, costing Americans, health, happiness, money, and productivity (Obesity is a serious problem 12). In this research paper I will be telling you about arguments and opposing viewpoints about a growing epidemic in teens and adults, obesity. Currently this topic is very controversial about who is to blame the kids, the parents, or the advertising companies because the cost is so low and the advertisers are getting a lot of views because kids are less active. The biggest issue in my opinion is that the parents and children are not aware of all of the consequences and health risks they are putting not just themselves in but their children. With this paper I want to bring out these issues so the parents especially have a better knowledge of this whole situation. Also, in this paper I will be discussing how advertising, fast food, cost/portion size, and better education about obesity. Obesity is a growing epidemic in teens and adults across the world especially America and people need more education about this epidemic. My position on this topic is that I am against obesity.

Additionally, the connection found between childhood obesity and the marketing of the food industry in the American Psychological Association’s article The Impact of Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity is intriguing because it has been found that the advertisement of fast food may affect childhood obesity. The marketing of food industries has an impact on childhood obesity because fast food

Parental neglect of offering healthy food for their kids led to compound the crisis. Recently, the consumption of fast food has dramatically risen in the U.S. The huge relevance of fast food restaurants, such as McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell and others, could be a contributor in changing the Americans style of food, and increasing their intake of these unhealthy foods. According to a research conducted about fast food consumption in the U SS, 22% of parents said that their kids consume fast food meals at least once a week, which might easily drive to obesity. As known, the main aim of fast food companies is raising their profitability, and therefore, their plan is to sell food as much as they could despite their knowledge that it is unhealthy. So, they focused on attracting kids to buy from them by enticing advertisements. They know how to draw kids’ attention, especially when they describe the taste of their meals and show their toys that come with them. There is no doubt that TV programs and advertisements have a strong impact on children. Many studies have confirmed that watching TV for a long time during a day is able to influence kids in their attitudes and habits. The problem of eating fast food is that it has a lack of fiber and dairy, contains a high density of energy, and has big amounts of protein, fat and sugar, which makes it the unhealthy

Obesity in children, who are exposed to advertising of unhealthy foods and sugar-sweetened beverages through the media. Television advertising has affected children due to their lack of nutritional knowledge and inexperience in making healthy food choices. The media which affects childhood obesity is one of the major public health issues that our country faces , due to increase weight gain and physical inactivity in children. According to the Center for Disease Prevention, overweight children are associated with a higher risk of contracting heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and many other physiological issues. If untreated, overweight children are most likely to develop obesity as adults (CDC, n.d). Overweight children spend more of their time

Media plays a massive role I the epidemic, the sheer amount of advertisement that the public see for fast food and unhealthy foods have an effect, especially on children. Health risks are growing and psychological problems are rising. Obesity is weighing heavily on the country’s healthcare system and economy. Society’s perspective on obesity is unlikely to change, its understandable that some think it is self-inflicted but its important we shed some light on the medical issues that can also cause obesity. One of the biggest problems seems to be how accessible and convenient unhealthy foods are. At this present time obesity is killing three times as many people as

Expert say that advertising has promoted unhealthy eating habit, but it's up to the parents, the teens, the adults on what they eat. Everybody knows on what's wrong and what's right. Yes, these

The advertisement industry has come a long way over the years. Television ad 's used to be based primarily on newspapers and magazines but with the occurrence of growing technology, has moved on to things such as radio, television and the internet. In this day and age, advertisement techniques can be considered almost predatory in nature targeting people who are interested in new forms of technology, gaming, clothing and even food. It has become easier for a products influence to make its way into people 's homes. Even though television advertisements can be incredibly powerful tools, they cannot be held entirely accountable for childhood obesity because other factors may affect the childhood obesity epidemic, such as household environment, psychological issues, sleep disturbances or even actions taken by the mother while she was pregnant.

Childhood obesity has increased drastically over the past years and has become a high health risk to children. In fact, childhood obesity has doubled in numbers in the past thirty years (Childhood Obesity Facts). Obesity occurs when an individual becomes overweight and doctor’s diagnose a patient by using the body mass index or BMI scale. Obesity causes many diseases in children which cannot be cured without a doctor, in result, childhood obesity drives high health care costs. Since little effort has been put forward to prevent childhood obesity the existence of this disease has begun to skyrocket in numbers. The number of children who suffer from obesity have greatly increased over the years so, people have to come up with a solution to prevent obesity. However, it will take more than just one solution to prevent childhood obesity, it will take many. Without the prevention of obesity future generations could be in serious trouble with health issues. Childhood obesity should be prevented by showing the youth that healthy will benefit them in life, therefore, parents start by guiding children in the correct direction with their eating habits, limit their fast food intake, and fight the market for unhealthy foods so that children are not exposed to unhealthy options.

Food advertisements, if focused at the right people and in the right places, are a complete success. These features, some of which are commercials, seduce society into buying food that we necessarily do not need. Many advertisement companies, especially those about food, are directed to children because they know that if you grab the kids you have their parents. While brands are using fun cartoons like “Trix Rabbit” and “Toucan Sam” (Green, 2007, p. 49) supermarkets are taking these items and placing them right in front of the children, at their level, advertising the “Fun foods” (Elliot, 2008, p. 259-273). They do this so the kids will use their, “pester power” (Scholsser, n.d., p. 2) to get what they want. A series of studies have been performed on children and television advertisements. An article states, “These studies have generally linked children's television viewing to negative health effects” (Korr, 2008, p. 451). Amongst these negative effects is a higher level of childhood obesity (p. 451). Similarly, in another study performed by a group of researchers, kids were asked to explain the television commercials that they remembered the best. The answers given were then compared with their diets. Interestingly, the items those children remembered best, chips, sweets, and sodas were a huge part of what they ate (Hitching & Moynihan, 1998, p. 511-517). However, some authors argue that television producer’s, even though their

Thousands of advertisements on junk food, fast food, soft-drink, etc are shown on TV and heard over radio have indirectly lead to the grown of obesity and anorexia in teenagers. This is one of the critical global problem of today which is threatening our next generations for being unhealthy and being exposed to many serious diseases and sicknesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problem and anorexia.