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Junk Food Ads and Childhood Obesity
Filed under: Media, Expert Advice: Tweens, Expert Advice: Teens
Kids are bombarded by advertising for junk food and fast food everywhere they turn. Credit: Corbis
What is junk food advertising?
Kids are bombarded by advertising for junk food and fast food everywhere they turn. In fact, kids see one food commercial every five minutes during Saturday morning cartoons. Most of these foods are high in fat, sugar, salt, and calories. Fast-food chains appeal to kids with tie-ins to movies, giving toys or prizes to kids who buy certain meals.
As kids age, they are subjected to promotional campaigns with offers for free music downloads, cell phone ring tones, and games sponsored by the food and beverage industry. The beverage industry alone spends more than $3 billion marketing directly to kids. Advertisers sneak junk food -- called "product placement" -- into hundreds of TV shows, movies, and online games. They even find their way into our schools by way of score boards, special events, fundraising and textbook sponsorship.
The facts
- Kids who watch more TV than their peers during middle and high school years have less healthy diets five years later (University of Minnesota, 2009).
- Children ages 7 to 11 who watched a half-hour cartoon that included food commercials ate 45 percent more snack food while watching the show than children who watched the same cartoon with non-food commercials (Yale University, 2009).
- In 2005, half of ads during Saturday morning cartoons were for snacks or restaurants, and more than 90 percent of those ads promoted unhealthy food (Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2008).
- Tighter regulation since 2005 has led to a decrease in junk food ads overall, but ads for fast food restaurants have increased (Nielsen, 2010).
Research, including a 2010 study from UCLA, finds a strong connection between ads and eating habits. One out of every three kids in this country is at risk for becoming obese. American kids consume more than one-third of their daily calories from soft drinks, sweets, salty snacks, and fast food. As kids associate pleasure with junk food, they develop lifelong, unhealthy habits that are difficult to break.
Tips for parents of all kids
- Keep them away from advertising as much as possible. Let them watch commercial-free TV or sign up for a DVR service that will let you skip through ads.
- Take the TV out of your kid's bedroom. There's a correlation between a children's weight and TV in their bedrooms.
- Teach kids under 7 the difference between a TV program and a commercial. Point out commercials and use a timer to show them when commercials begin and end.
- Talk about health, not appearance. Help your kids have a balanced approach to food, emphasizing healthy food choices based on nutrition, not diet.
- Help kids identify junk food advertising messages in product placement, website games, and guerilla marketing. Watch TV or play a video or online game with your child and find the products and logos used as props or part of the storyline. Have a conversation about how the messages try to get kids to buy a product.
- Start a conversation. Ask your children what they know about who created the ad and what words, images, or sounds were used to attract their attention. How did they feel after seeing the ad?
- Watch what websites they visit. Some of the most popular websites for kids, such as Millsberry, are actually giant ads.
- Explain "tricks" that advertisers use in commercials, such as using Vaseline to make hamburgers look juicy.
- Talk about "super sizing." Your kids need to know that a 32-ounce soda isn't a "good deal." It's a cheap way to add more sugar and empty calories.
- Agree on fast-food rules for lunch. As in, as little fast-food as possible. Point out why schools around the country have banned sodas and junk food.
- Take time to have dinner together. We are still the role models for our kids. If we feed them right and set an example for good eating, chances are they will follow it.
- Talk about peer pressure. Many ads will count on the fact that kids are especially sensitive to peer pressure to be "cool." Remind your kids that advertisers are counting on this vulnerability to sell things.
- Take the TV out of your kid's bedroom. There's a correlation between a children's weight and TV in their bedrooms.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
2-14-2011 @ 2:34PM
Jimm said...I know that junk food ads are fattening. I've seen fat people eat the ad pages right out of a magazine.
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2-14-2011 @ 2:47PM
dave said...those darn ads force me to do things i would not do if left alone - if only i could make my own choices.... but we must do what we are told by madison ave execs - darn ad execs
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2-14-2011 @ 2:54PM
WILL said...To ban junk food from your house will only makre your kids sneak behind your back , moderation is the key
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2-14-2011 @ 3:00PM
mike hylton said...how about this bring p.e. back to schools, not the sissy watered down version that still exists in some schools, but situps pushups track running/ rope climbing, dodge ball , yea some actual tough calorie burning exercise, oops forgot we cant put poor little johnie and suzie in such demanding. possible failing/ spots it wouldnt be good for their ego,, and oh yea the new breed of parents would sue everytime the kid had a bruise or sore muscle
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2-14-2011 @ 3:15PM
FATBOY said...That's right... the ads do cause obesity. I'm going to sue everybody now, because that's the American dream. Blame somebody else for your problems and try to get free money.
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2-14-2011 @ 6:37PM
JDen1952 said...I'm going to sue the Dixon-Ticonderoga Pencil Company. Pencils make for misspelled words. And Crayola is in deep trouble, too.. Because of their crayons, my young daughter is suffering severe mental anguish because she can't color inside the lines. IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY BY THE CRAYON MANUFACTURERS!
2-14-2011 @ 3:26PM
mary davis said...isn't it funny. i knew a lot of fat people long before there was television.
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2-14-2011 @ 3:43PM
fdlinden said...What did they serve at the White House for the Super Bowl party again? Oh, that's right, Chicken Wings, Kielbasa Sausages, and Burgers. Aren't they the ones that are supposed to set an example? Let businesses do business and let family's make their own decisions. And please stop litigating because commercials or someone other than you made you fat. We spend $200,000,000,000 annually on Type 2 Diabetes, think about cutting that from the budget people....
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2-14-2011 @ 3:46PM
Sendai said...What a crock! "Keep them away from advertising as much as possible" What difference will that make? Parents are the ones with the money, parents are the ones with the cars, parents decide what to get. Don't put the responsibility on kids by hiding advertising from them, put it on parents who let the tail wag the dog and demand junk food or else hissy fit.
"Help kids identify junk food advertising messages in product placement, website games, and guerilla marketing." Parents give in to junk food advertising, and guerilla pestering from their kids. None of this would have any effect on kids if parents stopped giving in especially when parents are taken in by advertising messages and guerilla marketing when it comes to cell phones and what cars you're 'supposed' to have.
"Start a conversation". Marketing is done by adults. Kids don't need a crash course in marketing, how to avoid it, what's involved in it. Kids want what they see on t.v. and it's up to parents to say no because they hold the purse and car strings. Your kids can't buy junk food unless you pay or you give them money. Parents are certainly influenced to buy things they don't need because they're told if they don't, there's something wrong.
"Watch what websites they visit". Why? Ever site has ads for food, charity asking, cell phone ads, newest tech gadget ads. Maybe parents should stop spoiling kids with internet they don't even pay the bill on.
"Talk about "super sizing." " What a laugh. Parents know what supersizing is. They buy it. Kids don't even label it. They just see it as a big portion. Parents control it. Kids are hardly super sizing themselves. They have to get money from you unless they all have secret under age jobs which I doubt.
"Agree on fast-food rules for lunch". Parents have no right to set fast food rules for lunch when they all line up at fast food places on their lunch hours because they won't make healthy lunches for themselves. It's hypocritical.
"Take time to have dinner together." How obvious! Do parents need to be told this? They also control where their kids go when it comes to dinner. You don't let them eat at other people's houses. You don't give them the car to have dinner elsewhere. Parents should make time to have dinner together and actually eat together instead of fiddling with their stupid phones and texting during meals.
"Take the TV out of your kid's bedroom." Yes and no. Yes, take the t.v. out of their rooms because they don't need one. One t.v. for the whole house should be good enough. I never and my brother never had t.v.'s in our rooms. We had the t.v. in the basement and it wasn't until high school when we had one in the den. My parents never had a t.v. in their room. But of course back then there was no such thing as Cable so you didn't have to pay to watch. And no, t.v.'s in a kid's room doesn't contribute to obesity. You buy the food not them. You cook the food not them. You make the rules about eating or not eating in their room. Room t.v. or not, it's not going to stop kids from being fat if they want to eat.
"Talk about peer pressure" Seriously? That's going to prevent kids from being influenced by adult conceived Advertising? Don't adults insist on being "cool." ? They're pressured to get a certain car or they're worthless. They're pressured to get the cell phone that does everything but walk to be cool when just calling should be enough.Women are pressured to get stupid products to prevent aging instead of accepting the fact that their faces will drop, they will get wrinkles and grey hair and just accept it instead of being pressured into being "cool" if you get this certain wrinkle cream, that particular hair color. That type of phone or car.
C'mon! It's not kids that have a problem with Advertising it's parents who give in to their kids because of it, get duped themselves into buying things instead of thinking for themselves, and it's adults who insist on shoving their wares down everyone's throats or in their bellies to make a buck off you and your kids' weakness of having to be told what you really want whether you want it or not.
Advertising is an adult 'sport' and kids are in bullpen waiting for the ball to be thrown just like their parents who are dictated to.
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2-14-2011 @ 11:20PM
Alicia said...I agree that the parents can only blame themselves for their kids' obesity if they only feed them fast food and never chase them outside to play, but I fail to see why it's a bad thing to discuss advertising with kids. I'd think it would be best to point out early to kids, "commercials are there to tell you what to buy because companies only want your money, not necessarily what is good for you." That way, when kids turn into adults (as they inevitably do) they will know how to filter ads and not be sucked in by marketing ploys.
2-14-2011 @ 3:54PM
geomcd said...This is just more of the blame game in America that is so tiring to listen to. People are obese because they choose to eat that way. If advertising did it, EVERYONE would be obese. Everyone needs to choose what they eat and leave others alone(all the way to the White House). No, I am not obese and that is my choice.
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2-14-2011 @ 4:26PM
Geek said...ABSULOTLY !!! Marketing to children should be illegal. A child can not make a decision. That why there is such a thing as “age of consent”. McDonalds should be made to step up the nutrition standards of the Happy Meals to equal a real meal for a child. How tough can that really be people ? The same with the school lunch programs. We trust the schools to provide quality and parents are betrayed by poor food and bad nutritional standards when the tax dollars are paying premium prices. It starts with a phone call. Tell you school board that child hood obesity is unacceptable. Over weight kids make un-healthy adults. Bloated health care systems and inflated insurance costs. Our kids are our investment in tomorrow’s human race. Short changing them is hurting us.
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2-14-2011 @ 5:38PM
phil said......and you are a food Nazi. ! You would force McDonalds, by law, to offer what YOU think is healthy, and what YOU think should be sold. Please...don't vote. YOU pollute the voter pool and we end up with articles like these that add nothing to intellectual discussion of much more important issues.
2-14-2011 @ 7:23PM
leni said...Yea, what's wrong with this country? The restaurants and schools have got to step up to the plate here. What do they expect, we should raise our own children?
Oh puhleez. If you've got a fat kid who has no contributing health anomoly there are 2 people to blame and only 2, Mom and Dad. Get your lazy butt up off the couch and play catch or go biking with the kids. Instead of sitting in front of your computer all evening try talking to your kids about what a healthy diet is and why it's important it is to good health.
2-14-2011 @ 11:23PM
Alicia said...Schools should be forced to meet nutritional standards, but as a private company and as much as I abhor McDonald's and everything it stands for, fast food chains have the right to sell whatever swill they want, as long as people are willing to buy it.
2-14-2011 @ 4:41PM
atp said...I have never watched a fast food ad and wanted to eat anything that was shown in the ad. The food always looks disgusting and plastic and the customers dumb as can be. Why would I eat food that makes me the kind of guy who passes over a hot chick in favor of a cheap mass produced sandwich made by some kid in high school!
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2-14-2011 @ 4:46PM
fred mahr said...Yes Its the ads and parents are really just robots working for McDs. Please! Stop with the blaming everyone but yourselves!
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2-14-2011 @ 6:03PM
mauriceemeier said...eating leads to OBESITY !!!
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2-14-2011 @ 6:07PM
raytreeandlawn said...I don't know if we should ban ads, but someone just answer this question. Why are cigarette ads banned, but not junk food when both are equally detramental to your kids' health?
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2-14-2011 @ 6:10PM
Cherie said...Oh No maybe the Progressives can think for us...after all they think they know best. NOT!!! You know how susceptible most are to the written word or a picture and have no free will? Ok reality check if print ads had that much power. Really think all the money would be poured into TV advertising, Radio advertising? Or on your server with all those pop up ads?
In fact no other outlet to advertise would be needed if this article held any truth at all. Welcome to Nanny Nation. Next thing they will have a station devoted to telling little progressives breath in breath out.
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