The Use Of Food And Food Advertising

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.

“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.

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.

The food industry has mastered the delicate art of trickery over many years and has been able to convince consumers to buy their products, thinking they are healthy, when in reality they are contributing immensely to the obesity epidemic in America. Food corporations have developed a marketing strategy where they target juvenile audiences with their products. The companies do this by having advertisements on children's television programs encouraging children to buy their processed, high-sugar food products. Companies get kids’ attention by including beloved children's figures with their commercials, thus piquing their interest. Children view their favorite characters on television programs and ask their parents or guardians to purchase the items for them and the parents, remaining blissfully unaware that they are relinquishing their child's health to mass food corporations, concede and buy the food, which causes their child to become unhealthy and eventually obese. Another way food companies market their products is by embedding their advertisements with words like “Cheap, easy, fast”, which appeals to low income families looking for a inexpensive meal, or families on the go that need to quickly get a bite to eat. Due to the fact that unhealthy fast food choices are often the easiest method for gaining a quick meal, more and more families are

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

Although seeing one’s favorite celebrity on television can be exciting for children, it can lead to a misunderstanding between the child and the representation of the product. For example, in the article “Kids Finally Speak on Celebrity-Based Ads for Food and Beverages,” the authors state that children can misunderstand a product that is unhealthy for them as a product that can make them as fit and healthy as their idol. Although celebrities are useful in the marketing strategies used in business on a daily basis one must look closely at the impact the advertisement will have on the target audience. This impact includes health impacts on the children today and the future generations to come. For the reasons that follow, celebrities should not advertise or endorse products that are unhealthy for children or teenagers because the motivation of the celebrities to endorse such products are in question and children are

Although Lewis’ study showed this message strategy to be most compelling especially in advertising, it bears the weight of finding a corporate conscience as in the case of Kraft Foods and their issue of targeting children in their ads (O’Rourke, 2013). Kraft Foods ads were effective in convincing children to want sugary items on a daily basis but failed to inform the young consumers of the health concerns with the product especially related to daily

In the video, “The Myth of Choice: How Junk-Food Marketers Target Our Kids,” it talks about how “...a typical kid sees nearly 5,000 TV ads for food and drinks every year and almost all of them will be for products high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat…” in these ads, it shows how vibrant colors and fictional characters can catch the attention of kids. This makes it so that children want to purchase the product being sold. In addition,

Researchers have begun the largest study of commercials that target children in order to get a handle on the issue of childhood obesity. The results showed just how unhealthy the products of many of these companies are, and in result recommendations have been made to these companies to shift their advertisements to highlight food choices that are lower in calories, fats, salt, and sugars. The content of food ads has begun to change, and will need to continue to do so in order for our country to become a more healthy one. I choice this article as a starting point for my project. I believe it could be used in the final project as just a starting point and background information for how affective commercials are on

Children under the age of six “cannot distinguish between advertisements and regular programming” and those under eight “do not comprehend the persuasive nature of advertisements” (American Psychological Association). Children have a remarkable ability to remember content from ads that they have been exposed to (American Psychological Association). “Research has found strong associations between increases in advertising in non-nutritious food and rates of childhood obesity” (American Psychological Association). During on study researchers looked at the effect of branding, the research used children 3 to 5 years old, two portions of identical foods were given, one in McDonald’s wrapping and the other not in the wrapping, the children would say that the food in the McDonald’s wrapper tasted better (Klass). This study shows how children are being influenced by what advertisements they view. In young children, research has shown “that for every one-hour increase in [television] viewing per day, there are high intakes of … fast food …” (American Psychological Association). And with children who “watch more than 3 hours of television a day are 50 percent more likely to become obese…” (American Psychological

Companies spent over $17 billion in 2011 just for advertising to children.Companies fail to acknowledge the harm they are doing to children and are taking advantage of children’s inability to identify when and how they are being manipulated. Eight to Twelve year olds see twenty-one ads or more per day on over fifty hours and forty-eight minutes watching ads per year noted in an article in American Psychological Association called “The Impact of Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity . There are fast food problems associated with kids being exposed to advertising.

Children, however, are more susceptible to media influence because they are more naive. Due to this naivety, children are not aware of the truth behind many things and will believe most anything one tells them, making them perfect targets for advertisements. Fast food companies, particularly McDonald’s, target children through Happy Meals. Cereal companies target children with cute mascots and toys inside the box. A company who took an alternative route to market to children was Kraft and their product, Lunchables. Kraft knew that ultimately, parents were deciding what their children were to eat at lunch and decided to market especially to busy mothers. The parents bought Lunchables for the conveniency but also because their children genuinely like the product. The procedure of appealing to parents in order to market to children is not a new concept however. “Kraft’s early Lunchables campaign targeted mothers. They might be too distracted by work to make a lunch, but they loved their kids enough to offer them this prepackaged gift,” (Moss 268). Parents, eager to please their children, will then buy the food products that their children want, which is not always healthy and this is where the addiction starts. People, including children fall into routines; at lunch time, children want their regular Lunchables. If not given these food products, a “temper tantrum” will ensue or they simply will not eat what they are

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