Why Should Companies Market To Children

Fast food has a harmful effect on society because it can cause obesity. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry believes obesity “Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise.” (parag. 1).The causing and treating of obesity is complex but it is the most recognizable disease. Consistently eating fast food and a poor can lead to obesity in anyone. The risks of obesity include an increased risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, fast food “Studies have shown that over the past four decades, consumption of food eaten away from home has also risen alarmingly” (parag. 8). This means that fast food is high in fat, sugar, salt, carbs, calories, saturated and trans fats. This type of eating leads to a higher body mass index or gained weight. Children and adolescents are at a

Kids like junk food; despite all the negative consequence it can brings. Places like Wendy’s, Burger King and McDonalds are very appealing to them. According to CBS News the fast industry knows how important is to advertise their product is all different way, and consequently they spend $4.2 billion on advertising in 2009. Meaning that they are spending billions of dollars just adverting food and as result children nowadays are seeing more fast food ads than ever before, disregarding the health problem this food is associated to. The fast food industries work very to strategically persuade the eyes, mind and stomach of children. They make sure the product is widely visible to them; in children cartoon while they are watching TV, in the street with multiples poster that have their favorites superheroes,

Fast food restaurants have all these unhealthy options on their menus, and as a parents you’re supposed to be your kid’s role model. If you are going to eat at fast food restaurants and feeding that to your children, then don’t expect for your child to grow up and not want to eat that as

“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.

An argument for fast food companies may be that in recent years they have started offering healthier options. Some menus now offer milk as a beverage and apples as a food. While these are healthier choices, there is still very few of these options as opposed to the unhealthy ones. Not to mention in advertisements the apples are always shown with a sugar filled dipping sauce. The fact that these companies still have mostly unhealthy choices, they should not target children in their advertisement. It is obvious that many factors play into the epidemic of childhood obesity. Factors that play into childhood obesity are things such as family income levels and restaurants that are in close proximity. Let me pose this question, what food places are the cheapest and have locations on almost every street corner? Yes, that is correct, fast food. When they already have those factors in their favor, these advertisements just seal the deal for them.

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

The intense advertising and responsibilities is not the only thing we saw in Fast Food Nation that effected children. The quality of the meat that is fed to children in school and at the fast food restaurants is in some cases horrendous. Children are not the only age group that eats this tainted food, but they are more greatly

This article incorporates essential realities about the fast food industry. Likewise, has late news and moves made by well known fast food organizations. The site likewise has tabs that clarify the wagers and most noticeably worst kid’s meals and after that another tab that includes the calories in kid’s meals. The site additionally discusses the different advertising to children and adolescents that the fast food industry does. Most of the data

Many Fast food companies target children because they are young and are good at persuading their parents to get what they want. “It’s not just getting kids to whine” (Schlosser 43). Fast food companies target kids based on what they are looking for which is money. “The decade of the child consumer” (Schlosser 43). Americans need to pay close attention to how their children spend their money. As more kids visit fast food restaurants, companies will come out with more items for kids to purchase as time goes along. More companies in America will keep targeting kids because they see an advantage in it that the reader does not see. “We see this as a great opportunity” (Scholosser 48). In the meantime, an employee at a fast food restaurant will sell fast food items to kids because they want their money in order to increase the business. As more fast food companies make sales, this will create a dynamic bond between parents and their children because the reader ponders how the fast food industry is affecting their children. As more kids leave after school to go and have something to eat with friends at a Taco Bell, or Pizza Hut, kids will buy food based on what they may be craving during lunchtime. “Research has shown children are more likely to choose foods with familiar logos” (Heyes). At some point in time, there will be millions of parents who will talk to their kids about their active interest in visiting fast food restaurants after school all of the time. The reader may

According “Eating More; Enjoying Less” from Pew Research Center by Scott Keeter, there are many different statistics that play a part in the consumption of fast food. According to the Pew Research Center and the research by Keeter, “fifty million Americans are served daily in some type of a fast food restaurant” (Keeter).According to Food Safety News, a study is completed by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and Bill Marler reports on this research information saying that “the IHME identified the top ten risk factors for health loss in 2010 and the number of deaths attributable to each one” (Marler). During this study, the IHME found that diets are the number one leading cause of death. High blood pressure, high body mass index, physical inactivity, high blood sugar, and high total cholesterol all also follow closely behind on the list of risk factors, according to the IHME. Marler claims that fast food leads to every single one of these risk factors in one way or another, and that “fast food kills more people than smoking, alcohol, and illegal drug use all combined” (Marler). Austin Bryn worries that diseases and sickness will develop at a much earlier age and will cause problems for many kids as they are not getting the nutrients their

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.

Even though some advertisements stimulate our appetite, those advertisements don't say that their fast food is healthy. Moreover, it has been often said that fast food has bad effects for our health, through newspaper, television, and other media. Most people should know these facts. To add to that, as I mentioned before, there are some fast food shops which serve health foods compared to other fast food shops, so if people are really concerned about their health, they can choose those fast food shops. Therefore, the problem should be attributed not to the fast food companies, but to individual choice.

Fast food tastes best when they are fresh out of the restaurant. No matter how big the portion is, fast food can be hardly eaten as leftovers. So children have gradually trained their stomachs-adults likewise-to hold fattier, oily, sugary foods that come in super sizes. The initial issue seemed to be just being overweight and obese, as these children who consume more fatty foods than necessary grew up to be a fat generation of adults. But now, the fast food monster has grown bigger and wilder that it brings children critical health issues at much younger ages.

“Research shows that this brand loyalty begins in children as young as two years old.” (mediaawareness) The reason this can be dangerous is because of the types of food our children eat. Foods like packaged cookies, salty soups, candy, and soda. The list runs much longer than this, but the reality is that these foods have things like added sugar, added salt, and trans fats that make the food taste “better”. Another really important fact to point out is that childhood obesity can be directly related to over consumption of fast foods. The average fast food cheeseburger contains about 500 calories. If you add an order of french fries then that is another 500 calories. Most active 5 year old children for example, should obtain about 1600 calories per day. So one meal from a fast food restaurant would equate to over half of the calories they should. (NCBI)

In today’s society, the food and beverage industry is faced with an ongoing ethical dilemma because they are far more concerned with making money than providing a good, safe, and healthy product for consumers. The biggest victims in this unethical marketing scheme are children. Children are the least informed and most influenced of all potential consumers (5). Although children usually don’t directly purchase these products themselves, their desires strongly influence their parent’s decision on what to buy and what the child will eat. Most products geared towards children are unhealthy, processed foods that are high in sugars and low in nutritional content (6). This has led to a rise in childhood