I am going to dip my toes into a bit of a controversial area for this post: food marketing to children. There is a massive childhood obesity epidemic in this country, yet food companies have no restrictions on advertising to youth. Although numerous things have resulted to this situation, experts agree that food advertising can certainly be considered a major contributing factor. Studies have clearly demonstrated that children are very much influenced by food marketing and want to eat what they see being advertised.
The Federal Trade Commission has found that food companies spend over 1.8 BILLION dollars marketing food to children and adolescents. The food being marketed is rarely anything healthy. Companies advertise soda, fast food, candy, chips and other processed food full of sugar. Think about the food advertisements that are shown. They employ the use of celebrities, tie-ins with kids movies and games or contests to keep youths interested. I can vividly remember as a child that I wanted to go to McDonald’s to get a “Happy Meal” that I would see advertised, featuring figurines from the latest kid movie. Frankly, I don’t even remember liking the food, but the toys that came with lunch were awesome! So, it made me want to go back.
One of the biggest problem with advertising to children is that they don’t understand that they are being marketed to. If a child sees his favorite celebrity drinking soda, it is not like the child understands that the celebrity is being paid for this endorsement.
Further, food marketing is generally deceptive in general. For instance, putting the word “natural” on a bag of chips doesn’t turn the chips into an organic potato. Certain cereals are full of sugar, yet are still being advertised as a great source of vitamins to children.
In the last few decades, great strides have been made with respect to tobacco advertising. In the 1960s, the FTC banned tobacco advertising to children in television shows, which had been the norm. Numerous restrictions have continued to be enforced by the government, most recently President Obama’s Tobacco Control Act in 2010, which imposed greater restrictions on tobacco marketing. Imposing similar restrictions on food marketing of sugar laden food to youth is not such a bad idea.
Although steps are being made in the right direction towards a healthier America, food companies have enormous leeway when it comes to advertising and marketing to children. If we really want to eradicate childhood obesity, making changes in food advertising is a great way to start.
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