Television Food Advertisements are bad for Children

Haze WANG  50655621

"American children and teenagers sit through about 3 hours of television commercials each week - 20,000 ads a year, 360,000 by the time they graduate from secondary school" (Durning, 128).

"The bulk of children's advertising center around four main product types: toys and games, cereals, candies, and fast food restaurants. These four categories account for at least 80% of all ads broadcast on children's television" (Selling, 1980).

The1992 study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest "found that nine out of ten food advertisements on Saturday morning TV were for candy bars, sugary cereals, salty chips, or other nutritionally flawed foods" (Jacobson and Mazur, 25).

The evidences so far show that television advertising makes a great impact on children. Compared with the other three product types, food advertising is relatively important because food is the most basic element for children’s health.  However, most television food advertisements do not concentrate on the nutritional value of the foods. Hence, young consumers can be easily misled. Those advertisements are harmful for children.

What types of food are mostly advertised on television?

The United States food industry spends $36 billion a year on advertising. However, 95% of the 10,000 food commercials children see each year are for foods high in sugar and/or fat, as total advertising expenditures tend to be highest for fast food, confectioneries, snacks, and soft drinks (Moser, H.R. and Horton, L.M., 2000). These four types of food are nonnutritive for the human being according to nutritionists. Nonetheless, compared with the nutrient food such as Fruits and vegetables, now in fact they are more popular with children due to the food advertising.

What bad effect does the advertising of food products have on children?

Concerned about widespread childhood obesity, health experts believe that surplus promotion of high-calorie food is contributing to the epidemic of the obesity. Although scientists have not found conclusive evidences, a recent spate of studies has provided support for a link. ''Marketing to children has escalated exponentially since the 1980s, and its rise mirrors the rise of childhood obesity," said Susan Linn, a psychologist who is the associate director of the Media Center at the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston. Compared with Chinese children, American children are more vulnerable to the millions of food advertisements. American children ages 7 to 12 spend $2.3 billion of their own money on snacks and beverages each year, while teenagers spend $13 billion at fast-food restaurants alone (Pollack, J., 1999). This seems to be the main reason why childhood obesity is prevailing in American.

Furthermore, it is found that food advertising constantly conveys a notion that eating nonnutritive foods like sugared foods is perfectly consistent with the concept of a healthy and balanced diet, which is not only to promote children eating high-energy food but also to shape the basic nutritional beliefs of children. Atkin, Reeves, and Gibson (1979) studied a group of 5 to 12 year olds and concluded that "heavy viewers of food advertisements on television were twice as likely as light viewers to say that sugared cereals and candies (sweets) were highly nutritious" (Young p.133, 1990). Food advertising misleads the youngest members of society into believing that high-fat, high-energy food is actually healthy for them and ultimately contributes to a wide range of health problems, some of which may even lead to the premature death of children.

What can people do to limit the impact of the food advertising to children?

In order to avoid the problems so far, parents, governments and food companies should corporate responsibility for rebuilding a "healthy" world for children. Parents need to understand the power of advertising on young children and limit the time they spend watching TV; the government should propose some policies to limit and regulate food advertising to children; food companies should obey self- regulation and withdraw the harmful advertisements for children.

Now some food companies have voluntarily begun withdrawing advertisements. The Coca-Cola Co. no longer advertises during shows with audiences predominantly younger than 12. Kraft Foods Inc., one of the companies spending the most on advertisements targeted at children, now only runs commercials featuring healthy foods such as sugar-free drinks, low-fat meat products, and whole-grain products.

Ultimately, television food advertisements influence children to eat food high in sugar and/or fat and misunderstand the basic nutritional knowledge, which may even threaten their healthy lives. Although scientists have not found hard evidences of food advertising leads to the health problems of children, it is clear that children have extensive exposure to advertising and are influenced greatly by it. To protect the children’s health, the harmful food advertisements need to be limited. Moreover, food companies should pay more attention to children’s health and thus replace high-calorie food with low-fat and sugar-free food. This will do great benefits to children and also to the companies.

Reference:

Van Evra, J. (1990), Television and Child Development

Johnson, E. and Gannon, J., "A Sociological Analysis of Children's Television Advertising" http://it.stlawu.edu/~advertiz/children/intro.html, last retrieved 22 Nov, 2005.]

Mishra, R. (April 18, 2005), "Push grows to limit food ads to children ". http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/fitness/articles/2005/04/18/push_grows_to_limit_food_ads_to_children/

"Children, Health and Advertising" (2000), Issue Briefs, Studio City, Calif.: Mediascope Press. http://www.mediascope.org/pubs/ibriefs/cha.htm

"TV Ads Will Change Your Child's Views and Food Choices", Journal of the American Dietetic Association January 2001; 101: 42-46, http://www.mercola.com/2001/feb/28/tv_children.htm

Dec.2, 2005