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Want Fries With That? Kids See More Fast Food Ads, Fewer for Sweets
Filed under: In The News, Media, Mealtime, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens, Research Reveals: Teens
Burger, anyone? Fast food ads top those for cookies and candy. Credit: pointnshoot, Flickr
Sweet or salty?
When it comes to kids and TV ads, salty wins.
Kids are more likely to see television advertisements for fast food than for candy and cookies, a new study reveals, and researchers also found race is a factor when it comes to exposure to food ads, reports the Los Angeles Times.
A study out of the University of Illinois at Chicago took into account ratings data from Nielsen Media Research for 2003, 2005 and 2007, and found that, by 2007, the ads most frequently viewed by kids of all ages were for fast food. Burger joints dethroned the former king of kids' advertising -- cereal -- which ruled the airwaves in 2003.Researchers also looked at kids and food advertising by race, and found that young African-American TV viewers in three age brackets -- 2 to 5, 6 to 11 and 12 to 15 -- were more likely to see food ads each day than their white peers, the Times reports.
The good news? Overall, kids' exposure to food ads fell, especially when it came to ads for candy bars and cookies. More bad news? While ads for bottled water increased, scientists found exposure to ads for diet soft drinks increased.
"It's a little disturbing," Lisa Powell, lead author of the study and associate professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, tells the Times. "On the one hand, the number of advertisements selling sweets and soft drinks to kids have decreased quite substantially -- but on the other hand, you see that the number of ads for diet soda, and racial targeting, has also increased."
Powell adds that she will fold 2009 data into the current study, which was published online in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. She also plans to monitor the nutritional content of the products advertised.
Related: Fast Food Calorie Counts Lead Parents to Better Choices
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
7-08-2010 @ 11:07AM
TATRODDER said...MY GOD, GET A LIFE! & QUIT TRYING TO RUN EVERYONE ELSES!!
Reply
7-08-2010 @ 7:16AM
Jason said...I remember when I was little I Iiked a lot of salt on everything.
Reply
7-08-2010 @ 7:45AM
wowsham said...if they did ads for veggies the same way they did for fast food ads (glorifying it by making it look like the coolest thing ever) more kids would be really healthy and would not be far from obese at all :/
Reply
7-08-2010 @ 8:11AM
Jim said...I'm so sick of hearing about racial profiles in the news! A few years back many racial groups made a big stink that they were no being represented in commercials and other media ads.
There was a new construction site being built in my area and the city made them take down the advertisement they had wrapping the fence and replace it with racially diverse people. The complaint... that the ad discriminated against Afro-Americans!
Now that there are more Afro-Americans in commercials it's being said their "targeted"! I'm not sure a child that sees a commercial on TV cares if the spokesperson is white or Afro-American!
Maybe it's time adults take control over what we allow our children to eat and not let our children make those choices... Who's bringing up who here? I think to many parents give into thier children just to keep them quiet!
Reply
7-08-2010 @ 9:04AM
Chris said...And you would be the reason racism still exists and is encouraged. There are no "kinds"—black people are not a species apart. Race is a social concept, NOT a biological one, and it's born of purely superficial observations.
Reply
7-08-2010 @ 9:32AM
Ourgordianknot said...Wait a minute, some junk food ads are the problem?? Listen, if you don't want your kids eating junkfood and getting fat-- don't feed it to them. Simple as that, or at least it would be if parents today would grow a backbone and stop giving in to their spoiled brats' temper tantrums for takeout and do some actual home cooking. Oh and don't give me that "But some can't find the time to cook at home" crap. Make time! Be a parent, not a friend.
Anyhow, back to the subject,, compared to ads 20 years ago, we rarely see any fastfood ads now. Go to you tube and look up the many volumes of 80's 90's and even 70's advertisements and bask in nostalgic glory as you're hit with the immense variety (and levity) of advertising past including the rather funny ads from the 80's fast food wars. Watch those then compare to today where you might get a food related ad once every hour or so, but 15 geico, progressive and medication ads every hour. I can't speak for everyone else but i'd rather my kids see a happy clown and his stuffed friends or an old lady saying "Where's the beef?" than Flo hawking insurance and people talking about "Smiling Bob's" erection.
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7-08-2010 @ 9:36AM
Pks29733 said...Fast food has been around for ages, and I've eaten it as a child (yes the ad's in the '70's made me ask for my folks to go to one of the FF resturants) pretty often. I didn't gain wait, had nutrition and yes I had thier 'salt'. Our bodies need salt (unless your on a salt restricted diet) to help us retain water in our system. The less salt, the more water we need to drink on a daily basis. Parents, they advertise the 'kid meals' with the 'prizes' to get YOU the PARENTS into the resturants. Use your parenting skills (you know the 'mommie and daddie' stuff you are to use teach you little ones how to behave in life) and tell your children either 'no' or 'yes' ('yes, but we only go once a week' - TELL them, set the rules...YOU are the PARENT) on going to the fast food resturant. Don't blame the ads, YOU ARE THE PARENT, YOU SET THE RULES!
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