Whose fault is it? Every day children are sucked into marketing ads and techniques created by multi-million dollar companies. Is it right for companies to target children who cannot think for themselves? Or should parents and guardians be at fault for their child’s engagement with certain foods or product. Multi-million dollar companies have the power to change the world with their advertising of certain products, however, responsible parents also have the power to change their child’s life.
To begin, a child’s brain is has not yet developed enough to make their own conscious decisions. For large companies or organizations, “Children are easy prey for advertisers” (Source C), rather than adults. So, in theory, a company should amend its advertising to a more beneficial system for the community. As David Benady stated, “ Advertising and marketing could encourage children to eat healthily, participate in sports and read books” (Source B), which is entirely true. With the combination of children's naiveness and companies marketing techniques, a child could easily be sucked into eating healthy rather
…show more content…
Parents and guardians are partially to blame because “parents can make an informed decision about the foods they feed their children” (Source E); parents are the ones who choose and buy the food for their children. It is simple for a grown adult to refuse their child’s guilt and make the executive decision: “to reduce kids’ waistlines” (Source E). Along with the everlasting goal to have a striving world, is to have a healthy world, and parents need to take the initiative in order to create a healthy environment for the world’s most important future - the children. An adult has the ability to see past the persuasive advertising techniques which cater so well to young children, so it is their responsibility to protect the younger generations from harmful and unhealthy
Many children of today are faced with the undeniable issue of obesity and other severe health conditions rooted from unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise. When analyzing children from the mid 1970’s to now a significant increase in child obesity can be detected. This statement conjures the question who is responsible for what children are consuming and the opportunities that are made available for them. Instinctively humans are given free will to make choices for themselves; however, at a young age parents are the one’s who are making the decisions. Many adults are appealed by cheap, fast, and accessible which perfectly describes junk food. Given the choice of a healthy dinner or a pizza, when comparing prices, majority of people would choose the latter of the two. In terms of aiding this obesity epidemic the government also needs to step up in supporting the community both financially and socially. The government has access to a wide range of resources that can contribute to inflating the
As the author of article “Regulating Food Advertising to Children,” Margo G. Wootan proposes, “Responsible food marketing to children must address not only how food is marketed but also which foods are marketed to kids (334).” She believes that even in the absence of government control there should be some guideline for food marketing to act responsibly and not encourage children to eat foods that are harmful to their health and well-being. Because of the increasing rate of childhood obesity in the United States, the author suggests a compromise approach between marketing techniques
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
Many individuals do not realize it, but obesity has become a huge epidemic in today’s society. Individuals tend to ignore the growing unhealthy products around them; instead of questioning why people are gaining weight so rapidly, they enjoy the unhealthy and unsuitable substances that they are putting in their body. Some eat whatever they can find, and since they are in a certain predicaments, they have no choice but, end up doing the same thing to their children. Many have not seen it yet, but parents are feeding their children unhealthy substances. The nutrients that they are feeding them are unhealthy, and since children do not know any better, they cannot disagree with what is being provided to them, nor can they tell whether they have had enough or not. In an article “Too Much of a Good Thing” by Greg Critser. He explains how parents are partially to blame for their children 's obesity and also their children 's environments. Critser uses statistic, biological experiments, and comparisons show how child obesity has become a great problem in today’s society and that parents have much to do with it.
They see it; they want it. Advertising to children is turning a want into a responsive nag to a parent, like a reflex. Every media outlet advertises, and companies like popular fast food restaurants target children. In the process of fattening the children, will their reflexes get slower? At some point in every kid’s life, they see an advertisement for a food or toy they want. This want leads to nagging of the parent until they give in. Although it is highly effective and profitable, fast food companies should not be able to have aggressive advertisement campaigns targeting children because it corruptly brainwashes them and promotes unhealthy life choices.
Daniel Weintraub in the article, “The Battle Against Fast Food Begins in the Home” argues that parents not fast food companies are to blame for kids being obese. Weintraub supports his argument by providing evidence and research that mainly focus on “...The increasing consumption of fast food and soft drinks, ...” (prgh.8) The author’s main purpose of this article was to inform and aware parents/ guardians that they need to take their own responsibility rather than blaming others for something they have control over in the home. The author writes in an informal tone towards adults with children in their possession.
Medical care and nutritional education of the children is obviously the parents’ responsibility, but so many parents are careless about basic nutrition and the need for exercise. In addition, how many parents just don’t have the gumption to “battle” with their preschoolers regarding what they eat? Some parents have the attitude that “at least they are eating SOMETHING”. We’ve all been there, at our wit’s end just trying to get a picky 2 year old toddler to eat some kind of fruit and then using the cookies, pudding cups, chips, or gummy snacks as a reward (or substitution). A parents control over meals and their attitudes toward dietary intake are factors that contribute to childhood obesity. “Hood et al. (2000) found in their study that disinhibited eating in the parents, when coupled with dietary restraint, may be associated with an increased risk for obesity in the child”.
The article “Parenting Childhood Obesity” say “If a child opens up their refrigerator or kitchen cabinets and is greeted by bags or chips, candy bars and microwaves pizza then that likely what they eat.” Children do not have the capability to cook and prepare meals for themselves. They also do not have the resources to purchase healthy meals. Parents cause children not to eat healthy by purchasing unhealthy foods. If a home is only stock with healthy foods, then children will not have an opinion then to eat healthy. Children follow their parents’ habits, “Researchers found adolescent are more likely to eat least five serving of fruits and vegetables a day their parents do.” If parents eat unhealthy it is very likely that their children will too. As caregiver they need provide children with healthy foods, so they will be able to live a long and healthy life. Parents often blame fast food companies for childhood obesity, but according to dailyutahchronicle, “Children, however, are not usually responsible for choosing their meals or the amount of food placed on their plates, nor are they culpable for choosing to buy healthy groceries instead of fast food.” Parents decide what children have on the plate. Children do not know the different between the healthy and unhealthy unless they are taught. Parents need to educate themselves about the health benefits of foods, and how
Parents have the control to help their children grow to avoiding unhealthy products sold to them in their local environments. However, it is easier said than done. Why is it that wherever a child will go, an advertisement will follow? Whether if it is on the TV, billboards,
While many of these companies argue that it is the parents responsibility to watch out for what their child eats, further investigation proves that it is not always that easy for the parents. To combat the growing number of obese children in the United States, food companies should impose cut their advertising budget in half, create lower calorie menus, and have bans imposed that regulate the advertisement of certain products.
As they continue to eat the unhealthy meal from that fast food chain, children may become obese and are then at risk of developing dangerous diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Sadly, the number of kids who are obese has increased over the years and will continue to if these ads are present. As Wellard stated, "Foods purchased from fast food chains are frequently consumed by both children and adults worldwide, and are generally high in energy, total, and saturated fat, sugar, and sodium." But, as kids grow up, they continue to eat at that fast food chain because they are accustomed to it already. They are not even aware of the problems that could arise from simply eating that unhealthy food. As Eric Schlosser stated in Fast Food Nation, "The growth in children's advertising has been driven by efforts to increase not just current, but also future, consumption." They become used to seeing that specific brand and they keep it close. It can be very difficult to stop eating unhealthy because of the diseases in the long-run and the possible addiction that may have been made by eating fast food so
Children are very important to marketers. They influence their parents and friends’ decisions. Every day children 2 to 17 years of age watch between 12-21 food commercials and that’s just on television (Haupt). They are also being bombarded by ads on the internet, video games, and smart phones. They’ve also introduced fast food into the schools. Many elementary and middle schools have Pizza Huts, Taco Bells, and various other restaurants in the schools. The fruits and
What is a bartender? Merriam Webster states it’s a person who mixes and serves alcoholic drinks at a bar. Nowhere in the definition does it say, “Attend to behavior”, or, “Watch for drunken disorder.” “Bartenders are those that fill orders of patrons at a bar itself or are given a beverage order by a waiter or a waitress that he or she will pick up and serve to the patron.” (Benson, Beth). Being a bartender takes patience, and a great deal of responsibility. A job is a job no matter what the job is. If he or she is hired for a position, he or she is obligated to do what is required of the position. Bartenders should not be held responsible for the behavior of their patrons.
As children grow into adults they begin to have more freedom of what is put into their body, but is freedom always positive? Freedom often correlates with responsibility because freedom allows for the transfer of decision making from a separate entity to an individual self. There is a great deal of power that goes into nutritional decisions. The way a body functions, grows, reproduces, appears, and reacts is all affected by what it consumes. Maintaining a diet that takes all these factors into account is not only tedious, but also impossible in many countries. It is important for the world to be educated on what they consume and how it affects their body; therefore, they can understand the complex relationship between the two, which is
In order to stop the rising rates of obesity, there has to be some steps taken to ensure that parents are educated about such programs that will teach them about the effects of different foods and what is actually considered healthy for young children to eat. Sarah Barlow and the Expert Committee (2007) state that the parents being the primary caregivers should track unhealthy eating habits and assess the medical risks in children when children are consuming unhealthy foods. Many of the junk foods that are bought today in stores are usually packed with additives and high amounts of sugar thus the over consumption of these certain foods will have many negative health risks. As Pearson et al. state, “While the causes of childhood obesity are complex, one of the contributing factors is the over-consumption of energy dense foods, that is, foods high in fat, salt and sugar, such as most snack foods” (Boots et al., 2015, p. 94). Most foods that are made today are mostly process and packed high with unhealthy fats, sugar and sodium contents. These ingredients are the reason obesity occurs in children, due to the fact that children typically love candy and other foods that are not nutritious for the body. Such unhealthy diet choices may lead to obesity and may also cause diseases to enter the body. Pearson et al. and Emmett and Jones both associate the risks of poor diet towards diseases and obesity, which can be seen in numerous children today. The consumption of such foods that