Adam Pemberton
COMM
COMM
Effects of advertising on childhood obesity
Currently 4.7 million children and teens are obese in the United States. Everyday children are bombarded with advertisements, often for products that are harmful to them. While most parents are paying for the food, the children are the ones that are paying the consequences. Many of American children’s health is poor due to the food that the parents are providing at home, and too often, with a lack of understanding of marketing, children become susceptible to the harm that food advertisers present to children. For example, many fast food advertisements often focus on children by utilizing them as the driving force to get consumers to enter restaurants. By focusing on the children many advertisers abide by the “pester power” of children in that they assume children will whine until they get what they have seen in their advertisement (Berger, 2007). Is or should such advertising be morally acceptable in our society? It has become apparent that such advertising has begun to create a rise in obesity in the United States, but little has thus far been done to slow down this devastating trend (Berger, 2007). Subsequently there is a desperate need in American society to reduce obesity, and within this fight against obesity will be the fight against one of the front line causes, haphazard advertising and/or marketing of unhealthy food towards America’s youth.
So what exactly is obesity in our society and why should one be particularly concerned about childhood obesity? To be considered obese a child or teen’s weight must be ten percent higher than what the recommended weight is for that child or teen (Cite). Of course ten percent above a normal child’s body weight may not seem significant, but considering their smaller size during physical development, the real concern is of continuing the trend of being significantly overweight into the child’s future as an adolescent and finally into adulthood. According to recent studies, if a child or teen is obese during the adolescence period they are most likely to be over weight as an adult, and eating behaviors established during childhood often track into adulthood and contribute to long-term health and chronic disease risk. In fact, the U.S. Surgeon General has identified overweight and obesity as "The fastest growing cause of disease and death in America"(Ted Lambert). This problem likely has not occurred due to just adults eating too much, but rather the eating habits and the health trend that are begun in earlier stages of life. Therefore we should we expect a similar increase in obesity among children as we do throughout society? In fact we do.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CITE), the past three decades the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years, and in adolescents aged 12-19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (Childhood Obesity) states that overweight adolescents have an 80 percent chance of becoming an overweight adult if one of their parents is overweight, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Obesity is one of the most common medical conditions out there, but is defiantly the hardest to treat. The difficulty in treatment comes from the wide range of health complications that coincide with not only childhood, but obesity throughout life. Risks that often come with child and teen obesity include: heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, breathing problems, and trouble sleeping (Childhood Obesity). Diabetes in particular has become an increased problem in not only in adults but in children and as (Child Obesity) discusses that children are beginning to suffer from “Adult Onset” diabetes. Such recognition of earlier onset of previously adult related diseases seems to point to the fact that we need to address the obesity problem from preventing obesity in the beginning of early childhood, and as many consumer groups have recognized, one way to combat this problem is initiating a fight against irresponsible social advertising that are contributing to obesity and many other medical and/or health problems that are become more prevalent in American children (Child Obesity).
So a reasonable question for one to ask is why would a child be so susceptible, often more so than adults, to marketing and advertising techniques? Probably the underlying theme to understanding a child’s increased susceptibility to advertising is their lack of understanding of advertising and how it is can be a very hard concept for them to grasp. For example, a recent study that took place in 2007, interviewed 136 children from the ages 7 to 10 years of age, were asked what advertising did and how it worked. Illustrations and pictures of advertisements were used as visual stimuli and the children were asked to indicate the purpose of including various symbols or illustrations. (Owen, Auty, lewis, Berridge, 2007). The corresponding results showed that the older children were more likely than younger children to understand what advertising did, which is to promote a certain product with little regard to other currently existing or competing products (Owen, Auty, lewis, Berridge, 2007). This result fit Young’s 1990 and 2003 research and prediction of how advertising and literacy suggests that we can expect older children to show more sophisticated grasp of selling intentions than that expressed in younger children (Owen, Auty, lewis, Berridge, 2007). An additional result was that younger children expressed how much they wanted that certain product without thinking that the company is persuading the child to want the product so that they parent could purchase the product that is being portrayed through the television. From this study and the their reference to other studies indicate that a child’s susceptibility to advertising and marketing comes from their superficial understanding of the advertisements and only taking the advertisements for their face value without understand why the advertisements were created in the first place. One may argue that similar practices are occurring in adult populations, but as the current evidence shows, the more illiterate and/or younger a child is, the less they will understand and make better informed decisions. Therefore in relation to obesity, many children are viewing many food advertisements for the face value of what the advertisement shows, such as people having fun or finding enjoyment in eating a certain product. These children then act on these preconceived notions presented by the advertisements, and as mentioned earlier children use their ‘‘pester power” to get the food, regardless if it is healthy or unhealthy, that they want (Berger, 2007).
Children’s networks expose their young viewers to 76% more food commercials per hour than other networks. Marketing is defined as an activity an organization engages in to facilitate an exchange between itself and its customers/clients, Approximately 7.7 food commercials per hour appeared on the children’s networks, or about one food commercial every eight minutes. The researchers noticed the food advertisements were predominately for sugary cereals and sweets, high fat food, convenience or fast-food restaurant, and chips/crackers. The US food system is the second largest advertiser in the American economy (the first being the automotive industry) and is a leading buyer of television, newspaper, magazine, billboard, and radio advertisements. “The reasons that the food advertising market is so large include the following: 1) food captures 12.5% of US consumer spending and so there is vigorous competition, 2) food is a repeat-purchase item and consumers' views can change quickly, and 3) foods is one of the most highly branded items, which lends itself to major advertising. Over 80% of US grocery products are branded” (Mary Story).
As the problem of obesity is rising in the United States, consumer groups have been attacking the certain types of advertising agencies that are effecting the childhood obesity which are the cereal companies and fast food restaurants, and the consumer groups are blaming them for the fact that children are becoming more obese, because of the commercials that are on all the children networks like Nickelodeon and the Cartoons that are televised on Saturday mornings on ABC network. “These food commercials are influencing our children to eat the foods full of fat such as hamburgers and French fries” (Berger).
Children are suffering from “Adult Onset” Diabetes, which there is an epidemic of diabetes in the United States and to certain consumer groups have fought that the advertising industry is a major contributor to the m medical problems in children. .
Some of the effects of advertising to children are that the children turn into whiners, people in the advertising industry want this kind of behavior out of the children because the whining will drive the parents so crazy that the parents will end up buying the product. According to Martha Irvine in the Associated Press points out that when parents say “no” children on average will ask their parents nine times before the parents give in, research in the ages between twelve to seventeen, who were interviewed for a survey on children and advertising. According to the book Ads, Fads and consumer culture, Underhill notes that:
The marketplace wants kids, needs kids, and they’re flattered by the industry vacation and happy to oblige. They idolize incensed TV characters the way children once were taught to worship patron saints, and manage to suss out the connection between brand name and status at very early age…. You no longer need to stay clear of the global marketplace just because your three-and-half-feet tall have no income to speak of and are not permitted to cross the street without Mom. You’re an economic force, now and in the future, and that what counts.
Works cited
n Berger, Authur A. Ads, Fads & consumer culture. Third ed. New York: Rowman & littlefield publishers INC., 2007. Print.
n Biaocco, Roberto, Maria D'alessio, and Fiorenzo Laghi. "Discrepancies Between Parents and Childrens Attitudes Toward TV Advertising." 2009. Web. 28 Oct. 2009.
n "Childhood obesity fueled by marketing tactics." Children Now Home. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. <http://www.childrennow.org/newsroom/press_coverage/childhood_obesity_op_ed.html>.
n Kilbournw, Jean. Cant buy my love. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Print.
n Owen, Laura, Susan Auty, and Charlie Lweis. "Children's Understanding of Advertising: an Investigation Using Verbal and Pictorially Cued MEthods." Web.
n Print. "Television Advertising Leads to Unhealthy Habits in Children, Says APA Task Force." American Psychological Association. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. <http://www.apa.org/releases/childrenads.html>.
