Junk Food Advertisements During Children's Programs Essay

Fast food advertisements can be found around the world, on newspapers, television, and even online. Children, teenagers, and parents have seen marketing focused on fast food. While adults may think little about such blatant advertising tactics that are solely designed to attract new customers, how are kids affected? People across the United States worry about the ever increasing obesity rates amongst children in recent years. A common explanation is the spike in popularity of fast food. Most kids and teenagers have eaten fast food at least once in their lifetime. But why has fast food gotten increasingly popular recently? Fast food has always been known to be very unhealthy, but kids still consume it anyway. The culprit: fast food advertising. In modern times, the majority of kids living in the United States have access to the internet or television, where they are easy targets for advertising. To prevent the nation from growing up obese, fast food companies should end all ad campaigns targeted towards children and focus advertising strictly on adults. These advertisements cause kids to consume fast food more often, to eat an unhealthy diet, and to grow up in a culture dependent on fast food.

Children spend nearly $30 billion of their own money on junk food. Marion Nestle stated on https://www.nejm.org that, “The food companies make misleading claims and they spend massive amounts sponsoring scientist and major health organizations to influence their research and guidelines.” Yet, marketing’s recent tactics have gone way further to persuade children. Along with television advertisements, they have shifted to product placements in toys, games, educational materials, songs, movies, and much more. The IOM noted that “…by two years of age most children can recognize products in supermarkets and ask for them by name.” More children are becoming obese and diabetic before they’re old enough to make decisions about these

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

Advertisements are everywhere. They are a major part of modern day society. Whether it be a television commercial, an internet banner, or a billboard, advertisements influence people of all ages, but they affect a certain age group much more than others. Children ranging from toddlers to teenagers are exposed to thousands upon thousands of advertisements each year. Some of these advertisements are damaging to children, while others are a positive influence. Advertisements can either be used as a tool or a weapon. Food advertisements and manipulation strategies are both positive and negative, and how companies use them decides whether or not marketing to children is ethical.

Children are targeted in these ads they try to draw their attention by making the ads fun, and by using cool phrases. Moss proposes and “He explained how he would deploy strategic storytelling in the ad campaign for his snack, using a key phrase that had been developed with much calculations:” Eat’ Em Like Junk Food’ (494).This proves that ads plays a role in promoting food that are unhealthy and is putting children 's health at risk for obesity. To sum it up, children are exposed to high amount of unhealthy food advertisements which affects young children health and food choices. Therefore, the government needs to intervene and stopping the advertisement of unhealthy eating and start advertising healthier foods.

Since the dawn of radio, large corporations have exploited this vulnerability by spending large amounts of money on advertisements aimed at convincing youths and teenagers that they need their products in order to be happy. When successful, these corporations unrealistic expectations of the value of consumer products, as they convince children they will find happiness through obtaining the latest Power Ranger action figure or eating a Big Mac. The graph (Source A) demonstrates how media is targeted at various types of audiences segmented by age, like kids, teens, and adults. It is particularly telling that commercial advertisements about foods are particularly geared towards children. This may be because children are the most impressionable in this area, or this may be because children at that age develop lifelong eating habits. One would expect children to have too little purchasing power to make their own food choices, Benady suggests a possible rationale for this targeting: children have a substantial “pester power” to pressure their

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

How would you feel if you saw this amazing looking burger with extra extra cheese, an additional meat on it and moist as we call it “juicy”? Or even a deal that says, a free burger is added if you buy this meal? Or like “Wendy’s” who sell the “5 for 4 deals”, which is 4 items for only $5? All I know is, some of my peers and even family members will find their nearest restaurant and would buy it. That is where the problem begins. Children get couraged to buy fast food because of how good food advertisements make the food look, but only did they know it’s not what they think. “Today’s children, ages 8 to 18, consume multiple types of media (often simultaneously) and spend more time (44.5 hours per week) in front of computer, television, and game screens than any other activity in their lives except.” That to me is ridiculous. What ever happen to playing outside with friends? Or going to the park? Just imagine the amount of commercials a child will see in 44.5 hours a week? Even fast food commercials? Fast food advertisements; at least need to be honest in their films, admit how many calories is in a meal and not charge for fruits and

This is obvious to many, but it seems like we often forget to prioritize helping children develop good habits. Presently, we are forced to accept the fact that children love to watch television, play video games, and surf the internet. But, within 40 hours of the most popular television programs for children aged 6-11, 83% of commercials were made up of fast food and sweets (Fabricatore and Wadden). This not only accounts to less physical activity in their daily lives, it also provides an outlet of unhealthy diet promoting. In a single year, it is estimated that children view approximately 10,000 food-related commercials that promote calorie-dense foods (Fabricatore and Wadden). Communication through television is a powerful technique that can be abused, leading viewers to allow decisions to be made for

21), they claim that children compared with adults might not evaluate the true intentions for junk food commercials. And this is the reason that the type of junk food advertising should not be encouraged in order to prevent obesity epidemic. An increasingly number of parents are anxious about the mass media, such as advertising and internet, providing demonstration to encourage children to choose junk food. Linn (2004, p. 367) consider that children have become the primary target of advertising, because they are often exposed to advertising environment, for individual, for a long time. Children obtain information from the commercials, and then, those could influence their buying behavior and demanding trends which is the main reason to result in their overweight. Therefore, reducing junk food commercials on the prevention and treatment of children can play a role in the excessive intake of

Fast food advertisement agencies take advantage of the ignorance of children to scam them into wanting unhealthy meals. Each year, the fast food industry spends over $3 million of advertising targeted towards children. Half of television advertisement is used during children’s shows and with cartoons. Out of all the factors

About a third of children in the U.S. are considered overweight or obese, and researchers believe television advertising is a significant contributing factor (4). Exposure to television advertising is basically universal and the ads present foods as desirable and attractive. Children have been shown to be far more receptive to television advertising messages than classroom lessons (3). It leaves a harder lasting impression on them because the food products are presented in a cool, fun way that attracts children. Most of the time, children would pick foods that they may not even like, simply because they think it’s the cool thing to eat and once a kid gets his mind set on what they want, it is very hard to steer them away from wanting it. Television ads for foods geared toward children are usually fun, and bright with animations and lots of cool characters that the children can relate to. This directly influences the child’s food preference and unfortunately most of these ads are for processed, unhealthy food products like cereals, snacks, fast food, and soft drinks. In the U.S., there are few restrictions on food ads, but that's not the case in the U.K., where junk food can't be marketed on children's television (4).

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

Although advertisers make huge profits by targeting children, parents should limit their youngsters’ exposure to fast food adverts. Admittedly, this is important as it prevents the negative shaping of the children’s dietary choices and the overall health of the society (185, para. 3). Past studies indicate

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