Advertising Threats To America

Obesity and being overweight are very common worldwide issues around the world, especially in the U.S. There are more than 3 million cases per year. By changing your lifestyle such as diet and exercise, losing weight can seem effortless. Desirable junk/fast food or even irresistible fast food commercials can tempt you to do the unthinkable. We are all victims of this advertising war. Quick-service restaurants (QSR) generate these advertisements in hope to attract more consumers or to increase their popularity rates around town. These commercials bombard our state of mind only to convince us to buy unhealthy food for worthless money. The increase in fast food commercials in the U.S. has led to an increase in both QSR revenues and the obesity rates. Regulating commercial frequencies will lead to a decline in the obesity rate. Our country has more than enough issues that frequently affect our population. Despite these alarming cautions, the food industries with their advertiser use every available media outlet to promote and sell their products. Pushing food and drinks high in sugar is unethical and unjust. We learn to

Commercials through television and radio aimed towards children are ethical because it helps build healthy ideals. Through commercials, children can see that doing certain things are good for you! They can see that it is what they should do. “Advertising and marketing techniques could encourage children to eat

Advertising is an over 100 billion dollar a year industry and affects all of us throughout our lives. We are each exposed to over 2,000 ads a day, constituting perhaps the most powerful educational force in society. The average American will spend one and one-half years of his or her life watching television commercials. The ads sell a great deal more than products. They sell images, makeup, skin and hair care, diet pills, and cosmetic surgery as a means of normalcy.

While the fast food is really harmful after an excessive amount, fast food chains and their advertisements are often blamed too harshly. Advertising is not the main cause and blame for childhood obesity. Ads simply promote one brand name over another. They do not persuade people to do things they are not already doing (Moerdyk, 2008). They already drink cold drinks, eat food, drive cars, and buy groceries. The advertising tries to get people who already drink cold drinks to try theirs, drive their cars, and buy at their store. “The reason we have so many fat, unhealthy kids who get involved in drugs and all sorts of other bad habits has got little to do with advertising and a lot to do with parents who don't give a darn what programs their kids watch on TV or what movies they go to” (Moerdyk, 2008).

For the average American, it seems as though food is the topic of choice for every advertisement being aired on television. McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Perdue Chicken, and Coca-Cola, are just a few of the numerous food organizations that market their products regularly to American television viewers. Food advertisements are to American society, as water is to fish, both entities seemingly cannot live without one another. In order to try an understand the effectiveness of food ads in America, I took the time to acutely examine eight food advertisements directed towards individuals over the age of eighteen. These were the titles of each of the advertisements, “First Draft Ever”, “Middle Seat”, “Quesolupa ‘Bigger Than’”, “Wiener Stampede”, “Success”,

Nine hundred sixty three million dollars was spent this year by McDonalds on advertising. This is up 8 percent from last year. The sad truth is that the number of fast-food ads produced each year is increasing, as well as the percentage of obese people in the United States. Advertisements of high in sugar and calorie foods are almost directly related to obesity within America. There needs to be a stop to this epidemic. Companies spend vast amounts of money to put out an enormous amount of ads. Many of which are viewed by children ages 2-11. On average children in the US see about 253 McDonald’s ads a year. One might see common fast-food ads on TV, billboards, or just about anywhere else in the media. Advertising is a growing market and it is expanding all the time. There is no way to can cut them out of your life.

It is certain that multiple sources contribute to increased obesity rates. One of them being advertisements. It is almost impossible to avoid theses unhealthy advertisements that are shown on television, stores, schools and on billboard as we are driving, not to forget the tasty radio advertisements. Corporations are aware of what is trending to promote their products on such things to grab customer’s attention, especially younger children. Barboza writes “Product tie-ins are everywhere. There are SpongeBob Square Pants Popsicles, Oreo cookie preschool counting books and Keebler 's Scooby Doo cookies”. How can such food be avoided when it’s publicized and announced frequently? Every year billions of dollars are disbursed by companies to achieve vast sales.

Sandra Calvert, writer for The Future of Children Journal, explains some products such as cigarettes are banned from advertisements all together. Initially, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided cigarettes were a health hazard, they attempted to cut down on the advertisement of cigarettes by playing one public service announcement each time three cigarette commercials played (212-213). A similar strategy could be implemented for food marketing to children. Considering the majority of food products advertised to young people are sugary, unhealthy foods, the FCC should require one commercial dedicated to teaching children about the food pyramid for each of these unhealthy advertisements. This practice could lessen the rates of obesity and result in less “unhealthy weight control behaviors” among obese teens (American Psychology Association Editors). Similar to how they are begging for sugary foods they see on commercials, seeing healthy foods might urge them to beg for fruits and vegetables instead, thus leading to healthier generations. Although this would not completely eliminate a child’s exposure to advertisements of negative products, it would give the child more options to consider and make their own

This article talks about the role that advertising plays on obesity. We as Americans are overwhelmed with advertisements everyday and, “everyone concerned with creating and selling knows: advertising does work”. There is no doubt that obesity is on the rise among kids who are directly targeted by

Today, we live in a society that is ruled by multiple forms of media, and where there is media there are advertisements. According to the market research company Yankelovich, the average person is exposed to about 5,000 advertisements and brands per day (Walker-Smith, 2014). The exposure to such advertisements have caused a detrimental effect on young people, such as the influence of what the perfect body looks like. Today commercials showcase unrealistic versions of the average male and female, causing an increase in eating disorders each year. Advertisements also influence young people by convincing them that it is okay to drink and that there will be no consequences. Advertisements do not show the long term effects that can happen to an individual when they start abusing alcohol; such as the need for blood transfusions or having seizures. They only show the scene where people seem to be having more fun with an alcoholic beverage in their hand. Advertisements also play a role in the food choices young people make. Most food advertisements appear on children and teen oriented shows; and the advertisements they show are unhealthy for young people to consume. Those advertisements are a contributing factor to childhood obesity that may later become adulthood obesity. Which goes to show the enormous impact advertisements play in the way society views beauty, alcohol, and food choices; creating detrimental effects on young people’s

How do Television advertisements affect people’s health and its significance in relation to childhood obesity?

Food advertising. Americans are surrounded by ads from food companies. Often children are the targets of advertising for high-calorie, high-fat snacks and sugary drinks. The goal of these ads is to sway people to buy

Advertisers have been marketing food to children on television since the first television broadcasts started. The effect of their marketing non-nutrient dense food to children has not had a positive result. The Federal Trade Commission’s report, Advertising to kids and the FCT: A regulatory retrospective that advises the present, reports that 50% of overweight kids become overweight adults. The report also states that 80% of obese adolescents will become overweight adults. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of overweight children ages 6-11 has more than doubled, while the rate for adolescents has tripled since 1980” (FTC, n.d.). According to a data brief from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 16.9% of U.S. children and adolescents in 2009-2010 were obese (Ogden, 2012). The data brief also stated that adolescent obesity rates were higher than obesity in preschool-aged children. Among adolescents, boys experienced a higher rate of obesity (18.6%) than girls (15.0%).

In 2012 Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity stated $4.6 billion was spent on advertising to young children and adolescents (Krisberg, 2014). Children are watching too much television and the commercials they are seeing is tempting them to eat what they see, this is where a responsible parent should take the remote control away and have their children exercising, playing basketball, and running, anything but sitting behind a television or a computer. As stated by the daily press, advertising of candy, cereal linked to childhood obesity study (2004) “Television advertisements have double from 20,000 to 40,000 since 1970” (p.1). Children this young are vulnerable to advertising directed at them. McDonalds has

The world as we know it in the 21st century is consumed by advertising. Everywhere we look, everywhere we go our eyes are continually be exposed to some form of advertising; televisions, media, magazines, bill boards and shops are some examples of places where we gather information from certain types of commercial advertising. Our lives are ruled by screens; it is inevitable that during our daily lives we are going to experience a sponsored ad, a TV commercial or a sexy, skinny model on the front of a mag. All these advertising elements may seem positive, may it be the pretty colours, gorgeous people, catchy phrases. These potential positive things are having a negative effect on youth health, as the unhealthy, unrealistic images portrayed are brain washing our younger society into unhealthy habits and ways of living.