Childhood Obesity: MARKETING & FOOD

Children and youth spend more than 44.5 hours per week utilizing social media outlets including television, radio, and internet. That's literally a full-time job including overtime. So more sedentary hours spent throughout a week. Less physical activity is directly associated with increase weight. Marketing and advertisements have re-emphasize their target audience to youth. In simple words, large food industries & companies may spend more time with kids than the parents & guardians within the households.

Advertisments are not just simple commericals during a favorite cartoon it may vice versa. The creative marketing strategies does not merely provide children with a glimpse of their favorite cartoon, super-hero, actors, or personality enjoying a meal, but displays that the meal is more fun with the accompaniment of these favorite characters or television actors. Food marketing is a huge industry and its association to obesity is undeniable.

Sources: American Pyschological Association. (2012). The impact of food advertising on childhood obesity. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/topics/kids-media/food.aspx

2 comments:

UnknownOctober 14, 2012 at 10:19 AM
It seems ironic to me that many fast food places will allow adults to purchase "kids meals" as a way of eating smaller portions, yet, as you said, the target population of the companies advertising the meals is still children. The inclusion of special toys and prizes inside the meals only makes them that much more desirable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012)report that approximately 17% of children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese. It seems that several companies say they are doing what they can to decrease this trend in our children, but the food choices and marketing tactics don't reflect their concern.
Reference
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.(2012). Overweight and obesity: Data and statistics. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html

UnknownOctober 14, 2012 at 8:48 PM
Many fast food restaurants have selections that cater to the family; not necessarily healthier choices, just proportioned for the entire family. Some even have substitutions for the less healthy choices (i.e. fries vs apples or soda vs milk) Is that supposed to be better?