Childhood Obesity And Advertising In Schools

In today’s media obsessed society, youth is greatly influenced by advertising. For example, Marketing to kids gets more savvy with technologies is how they ,“Online games like Webkinz show ads on the site draw youth to buy the product or just to look at it for ‘money’”. Because this tactic works, the ads are an excellent at make youth to talk about this and be annoyed. In Facts about Marketing to Children, it says, “Children pack 8.5 hours of media a day’, is what the Facts about Marketing to Children says.” Because children are on the media so much it is easy for marketers to advertise and get children to buy the product. “ Anne Lappe says that when her daughter grows up, and goes to a movie, the character might have a soda or fast food.”

“Congress should ban advertising that preys upon children, it should stop subsidizing dead-end jobs, it should pass tougher food safety laws, it should protect American workers from serious harm, it should fight against dangerous concentrations of economic power (Schlosser). People must wonder how is it that a fast food company has so much customers. Advertising is the answer. The power advertisers have to be able to influence so many people 's decisions and affect people’s lives especially the lives of young children is incredible. Advertisers know just who to target and they research how too. In Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation, Schlosser explains to the readers how advertisers use techniques to draw in customers. A technique used is the “cradle-to-grave” which focuses on children to make them lifelong consumers. Like many researcher, Schlosser, has found that advertising to children when they are younger makes them be loyal to the company, and a child 's “brand loyalty” may begin as early as the age of two (43). Fast food advertising reaches out and harms families everywhere. This is why it is crucial that the people to make changes in their lives and change the way fast food is affected us.

In the essay “Kid Kustomers” by Eric Schlosser, the author addresses how companies use advertising as a way to lure children into buying their products. The author eventually convinces the reader that children then influence their parents into buying the product as well. Schlosser incorporates statistics about how much McDonald's sold their happy meals to children between the age of three and nine. This is simply because children watch more tv and go on the internet more; therefore, they are more likely to see more advertising, and eventually pursue their parents to buy them the product. In an informative tone, the author is speaking to parents with young

According to the article “Facts About Marketing to Children”, the average kid is exposed to 40,000 ads a year, nearly 100 a day. This leads to what is known as the “nag factor” which means that kids have lots of control over what their parents buy based on what they ask for, or nag their parents about. Being exposed to this many ads lead them to ask their parents an average of 9-50 times, even though they may not actually want or need them; they might have just seen a cool looking ad for the

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.

s children is that more is better: super-sized servings of French fries and soda, gigantic buckets of movie popcorn (with free refills) and king- sized candy bars (Dillon, 2009, p. 16). According to Harris (2012), one-third of the kids in the United States are overweight, yet fast food chains continue to target them and provide them with unhealthy food without telling them what they are actually eating. In all the studies that I read all the researchers used BMI (body mass index) to the probability of advertisements raising kid’s body fat there is a correlation suggesting that lower cost of fast food make it more accessible to young kids. Although not all the studies agreed on how much responsibility ads hold they all agreed that part of the

Do advertisements cause children and teens to make unhealthy food choices? Advertisers put cartoon and television stars on their products (fruit snacks, mac and cheese, candy Etc.) gaining control of what kids eat. Examples are everywhere, the store, television, at events. There's no escape from advertisements on the sweet delicious juicy unhealthy foods.

Americans have always had the mentality that bigger is better. Bigger cars, bigger houses, and bigger salaries are just a few ways that Americans supersize their lives. But, there is one other thing that has been growing in American households: their weight. Portion sizes are out of control, video games always beat a playground, and everything is motorized. This is the way that American children are growing up, and out. But in a society that is so obsessed with looking good and thus, thin, how are these children getting so large? Advertisements. The news has been attacking advertisements aimed at children, and rightfully so, they are showing unhealthy lifestyles and eating habits in a socially acceptable way. Children watch cartoons.

It has come down to this, there is an obesity epidemic. It 's like people can’t stop themselves from eating so much. Well, I guess eating isn 't necessarily the big problem here... It 's the type of food that people are consuming, fast food. America tops the list of world 's most obese countries. It 's just sad and something needs to be done about it. The worst part is that there are so many children being affected by obesity. According to CDC (Centers for Disease Control), approximately 17% (12.7 million) of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years had obesity. Also, in 2012 they found that more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese (CDC). This is crazy! That is a lot of obese and overweight children that suffer from obesity from such a early time in their life. Who 's to blame for all this obesity? We can branch off and look at various things causing obesity in children. But, it is proven that fast food marketers and advertisers play one of the biggest roles in this obesity epidemic. Fast food marketers understand and know that advertising works, and brings them customers. They don 't really care so much about people being obese, it 's just business to them. Which is why something needs to be done about it all. A lot of people don 't even think about fast food being that bad or harmful, but it is and people need to understand that. “The truth is, fast food doesn’t always mean that it’s bad

Corporate marketers intentionally make parents miserable, by convincing kids that life is about buying (Barbaro, A ,2008). Children are a purchasing influences, as in they can decide what type of car a family should buy, where to go on vacation etc... Corporate marketers have caught on to this and make a parent’s life difficult by sending out messages of a product that the child “must have”, this then leads the child into nagging the parent until they give in and buy it for them. Children have a lot of power and advertisers know it. On average a child spends 40 hours a week outside of school consuming media, which is mostly commercial driven (Susan, L, 2003) and in addition, approximately 3000 commercial messages sent to a child a day

Advertising to children began in the 1970s, marketers decided to advertise to children because they can be heavily influenced by commercials (Wilcox, Kunkel, Cantor, Dowrick, Linn, Palmer, 2004). Some believe there are ethical concerns with targeting children, because they are so easily persuaded. Others such as Lalley, senior vice president at Lid-Leo (company specializes in accounts for McDonald’s and Nintendo), believe the commercials are not manipulating children to make purchases, because commercials are just bringing awareness of the product, not convincing children that they need the item. Children or parents have the decision to purchase or not to purchase the product (Campbell, Davis-Packard, 2000). Marketing to children has become increasingly more popular. Businesses spend $17 billion annually to market to this target group, since children under twelve years old influence $500 billion purchases annually, giving companies a remarkable return on investment (Horovitz, 2006). There are several mediums that companies may use to target children to purchase products which include television, radio, internet, books, cell phone applications, and in store tactics.

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

A growing number of research has been committed to determine whether the content of food and beverage advertisements is influencing children’s mentality. Since advertising could be used as a vehicle for sharing knowledge and beliefs which may affect patterns of behavior. Children are like a blank canvas on which to paint a new life idea. Children like everyone else also consume nutrients through sight and hearing. Essentially, they are being influenced by unique environment variables, firstly from their family environment. These environmental variables are the center of enculturation, from which ideas, attitude and images are memorized. Cultural or norm behaviors are learnt through the clothing they wear and even the food they eat. Many researchers have condemned advertising for its effects on children’s food knowledge, preferences and food choice obviously, advertising does have an effect on children. Parents are realizing that, all television represents is an influential power for children. Television is a way the world can model negative behaviors for children to follow. Action and words are equally effectual and one must be careful of what one does or says for kids to emulate.

The commercials feature animated characters selling fast food kid meals. Children relate with the cartoon characters and want to eat the foods that are being promoted. Children receive the message that fast food is good for them, and do not understand that eating too much fast food can be unhealthy for them. Unfortunately the message from this type of advertising is geared toward the child thinking I need to have the fast food. This is a bad message to leave in children?s minds, because it can also cause problems with their health. The obesity rate in young children has risen drastically over the last twenty years. Health reports have attributed this to the continuing increase in the amount of fast food children are consuming. Television commercials for fast food are on every channel, and the number of channels has risen over the last twenty years. Children who watch television are exposed to a non-stop borage of commercials. This continual exposure promotes a cycle of the child always wanting to go to the fast food restaurants. Parents also are affected by the commercials. Their children want to eat fast food, and the fast food is very convenient for busy families. It is much easier to go through a drive-thru and order the food, then to cook the meal at home. This can be a harmful pattern for the family to establish. Convenience over a more healthy home cooked meal adds to the childhood obesity

The flashy advertisements broadcast in television generate impulse shopping in children. Children, after watching the glitter of commercials, often lose the ability to live a life without materialistic joy. The kids usually get more attracted towards the costly branded products, such as jeans and accessories. They disregard the inexpensive, but useful, ones that are not shown in the commercials. Advertisements have an indirect effect on the behavior of children. They might develop temper tantrums, when deprived of the latest toys and clothes that are shown in the commercials. The personal preferences in clothing, toys, food and luxurious of children are altered by the advertisements, to a great extent. Junk foods, such as pizzas, burgers and soft drinks, are heavily promoted during children 's TV viewing time. This develops a craving for fatty, sugary and fast foods in kids, thereby affecting their health adversely.