Television Effects On Children 's Eating Habits

McDonald’s famous Happy Meal is marketed specifically towards children; the food comes in its own bright colored box with a special toy that is constantly changing to keep up with the newest fads. McDonald’s also builds indoor playgrounds for kids to use while they have their meal, which attracts children and their parents. Of course, Ronald McDonald the clown, McDonald’s notorious mascot is also used to lure children into the restaurants. Another marketing example used on children is the placement of unhealthy treats near the checkouts in retail stores. The products, usually placed at a child’s eyes level, are colorful and sometimes have cartoon characters that appeal to children. Soft drink companies also endorse their products with popular celebrities and cartoon characters who are often admired by children. Food companies are also causing poor eating habits in school cafeterias where kids are offered fast food, burgers, chips, candy, fries, pizza, and sugary drinks. In the documentary Fed Up, Stephanie Soechtig discloses that “In 2006, 80% of all high schools operated under exclusive contracts with soda companies and by 2012 more than half of all U.S. school districts served fast food” (Soechtig). Setting children up for failure by offering unhealthy and addictive food options, administrators are hoping the kids can make healthy decisions. Food

Have you ever wondered why Mcdonald’s happy meals have toys in their commercials? Mcdonald’s put toys in their commercials because kids love toys. They know that kids enjoy playing with toys and that kids will ask for a happy meal just for the toy. Mcdonald’s and many other companies use this method to affect kids. This is effecting kids negatively!

Children are exposed to roughly twenty-seven food advertisements per day on television (Schor). That number does not include the many other forms of advertisements children are objected to every day. One of the most popular and effective methods of marketing is by using cross-promotional techniques. Toys, giveaways, and packages are commonly used in cross-promotional activities by associating junk food with movie and cartoon characters. McDonalds is arguably one of the most successful corporations at selling products to children and can credit most of their success to the toys that accompany a Happy Meal. Children are encouraged to purchase Happy Meals multiple times in order to collect all of the toys in the series. Cereal brands are also recognized for including movie related prizes with the purchase of a box of cereal. Packages sometimes offer premiums and giveaways to trips relating to movies. The partnership between movies and junk food brands turn movies into advertisements themselves. The movies will have product placement at eye level to children in a partner ship. Product placement can take place by mentioning a product name or showing the brand. Another popular method of cross-promotional activities is by associating cartoon characters with snack foods. Macaroni cheese shaped like SpongeBob, fruit snacks shaped like Scooby Doo, and Jimmy Neutron shaped crackers are not uncommon. Children have reportedly argued that food tastes better when it is in the shapes of cartoons (Consuming

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.

Children think that because their favorite character is eating McDonalds, then it is okay for them to eat McDonalds as well. Unfortunately, there are many other forms of marketing out there. For example, there is product placement, viral marketing, and sponsorships (Frechette 2015). Good marketing can include anything that has to do with fruits, vegetables, or being active. Unfortunately, you don’t see much of that on television. If Americans can change how they market to children and how they market food choices, then obesity can be managed better and children can live a longer life without the fear of diseases.

In recent advertisements, Chipotle emulates the Ronald McDonald Campaign, by the appearance of the characters and scenery as something from a children’s book. This sentimental appeal seeks to connect the audience to their childhood, recalling a time in which all was right with the world. Specifically in Chipotle’s “Scarecrow” advertisement, Chipotle associates a children’s character with their product.

Kraak and Story (2015) used three cartoon media characters to assess the recognition of popular characters and relationship to taste and snack preference for potato chips, crackers, and baby carrots. The media characters used in the study were Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants©, Warner Brothers Entertainment’s Pink Panther©, and El Chavo©. The study found: 1) a high recognition of familiar media characters (92-98%) among the children, 2) the use of familiar licensed character on food packaging increased children’s taste and snack preferences, and 3) younger children (4-6 years) were more likely to prefer a food with a licensed media character compared with older children (7-11 years). Intervention students associated healthful behaviors for dietary intake and being physically active with the messaging and images of the university school mascot used in the social marketing

In today’s world television has become one of the most popular and frequently used pastimes. With the increase of technology available today people can now watch television on their phones, laptops, and tablets wherever they go. Something else that has increased in the past years are the number of obese people in the United States. In the last couple decades it was estimated that the number of obese children age 2-5 has more than doubled (5.0% to 12.4%) and for ages 6-11 it has also more than doubled (6.5% to 17.0%). In adolescents aged 12-19 the number has more than tripled (5.0% to 17.0%) and as for adults it is estimated that 70% of Americans are overweight and out of that percentage 50% are obese (Boulos, Vikre, Oppenheimer, Chang, & Kanarek, 2012). It is no coincidence that as the number of prolonged television use has risen so has the number of obese people in America. Television has a negative impact on children that in the long run can lead to obesity.

The ad also targets children by mentioning the Playland and by saying that the happy meal “comes with a free toy.” They try to persuade kids to want to come back by revealing that a new toy is released every week. Food ads try to appeal to children because if they start eating their products at an early age, it is likely that they will remain a customer for life. McDonalds attracts children with their playgrounds, their complementary toys, and even their friendly clown mascot, Ronald McDonald. Every time that child returns to McDonalds, their liking and craving for the food is deepened until its consumption becomes a necessity into and throughout adulthood.

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

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

Does violence on television have a negative effect on children and teenagers? The violence seen on television has had surprising negative effect. Violence shown on television causes children and teenagers to develop behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Such behavioral and learning problems include; language development, school performance / learning, cognitive development and their general behavior to others (Kinnear 27). In a study on the correlation between violence and television done with 1,565 teenage boys over a six-year period in London, William Belson, a British psychologist, found that every time a child saw someone being shot or killed on television they became less caring towards other people. William Belson also

Furthermore, the corporation was heavily condemned by the public for exploiting children market and causing childhood obesity. Indeed, McDonald’s has been using advertising which mainly targeted children. As a result, according to the survey to American school student in 1996, 96 percent of all children could identify Ronald McDonald (Cohen, 2011, p8-5). How was McDonald’s able to achieve the above result? McDonald’s children marketing strategies were very simple but extremely effective--to give small toys as a treatment to children in order to appeal to their interests. With the repeated uses of this psychological influencing tactic, children would subconsciously make a connection between McDonald’s and toys. Therefore, children, who were under the influences of McDonald’s marketing strategies, could not help to think of McDonald’s whenever thinking of toys.

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

Television is a big part of today’s society. Everybody watches television, including the children. There is a potential problem with letting children watch television. Ask this question, would someone let their own child watch some of the programming that they watch, too? Some of these programs are intended for the adult generation, not young children. Violence has a major role in television these days. Letting children watch this violence could corrupt their minds and eventually lead to bad behavior. There needs to be a limitation on the types of television programming that parents let their children watch, because violence in television can negatively affect children.