Junk Food Advertisements Are Intentionally Targeting Vulnerable Children, Leading To An Increase In Childhood Obesity

Every day, millions of children are unknowingly being influenced by the food advertisements that they see on TV. Fifty percent of all the ad time on children's shows consists of food ads, so with the average child in the U.S. watching three to four hours of television a day, it is no surprise that children are very familiar with these ads. However, what these children are unaware of is that these ads are almost completely dominated by unhealthy food products. The Kaiser Family Foundation published a study on the distribution of types of food ads on TV targeted at children or teens. The following pie chart displays their findings.

Since the majority of foods advertised at children are sugar-filled, with little to no nutritious value, children have developed unhealthy food preferences. This has led to an increase in the amount of junk food that children consume, and thus, an increase in childhood obesity. An expert committee from the Institute of Medicine conducted a study on the relationship between food marketing and children's diets. The committee found that "Television advertising influences the food preferences, purchase requests, and diets, at least of children under age 12 years, and is associated with the increased rates of obesity among children and youth."

Clearly, junk food ads are having a big impact on children's diets. To understand why children are so influenced by these ads, one must look at the persuasive techniques used in advertisements. To children, junk food advertisements may seem harmless, but in reality, these ads are distorting their perception of a healthy diet and leading to childhood obesity.

Movie and TV characters, toys, and games attract children to junk food ads
Amna Kirmani, a marketing professor at the University of Maryland, is an expert on advertising and the persuasive techniques used in ads. In the following interview, she explains a variety of techniques that advertisers use to attract children.

One of the main ways that the junk food industry targets children is by including popular movie or TV characters in their advertisements. For instance, Baskin Robbin's ice-cream flavor of the month uses characters from the Disney movie, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. In addition, advertisements for pop tarts show Disney princesses such as Cinderella and TV characters like SpongeBob, in order to attract children to their product.

Burger King lures kids in by giving them crowns and toys.

Associating toys and games with junk food products are also a common technique that advertisers use to target children. McDonald's Happy Meals come with toys associated with popular children's movies like Monster Inc., Tarzan, and Peter Pan. Burger King kid's meals come in a "BK Crown Activity Box," which contains word searches, mazes, and other activities that kids love. These activities are also found on many cereal boxes, such as Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruit Loops, and Apple Jacks (all of which are very high in sugar).




Junk food ads are easily able to persuade vulnerable children into buying their products

The younger generation does not have the same awareness and experience as adults. When children view a junk food advertisement, they are so absorbed in the positive aspects of it (the smiling faces of children eating the food or the image of their favorite movie character on the food packaging) that they do not see the health risks associated with the food. According to the American Psychological Association, children under 5 years old cannot consistently distinguish program from commercial content. In addition, children under the age of 8 do not understand the persuasive intent of advertising. Therefore, young children are very easy targets when it comes to junk food advertising. 

The APA also found that product preference is established after just one commercial exposure and is strengthened each time the child is exposed to the product. For instance, once a child sees a commercial for a McDonald's happy meal, and hears the "I'm lovin' it" slogan, they establish a preference for McDonald's food. Once they start eating this unhealthy food, they begin to desire foods of a similar content. The problem is, high-calorie foods can be addictive (Natural Neuroscience, 2010). This addictive factor causes children to consume excess amounts of junk food, and, if not stopped by parents, leads to childhood obesity. 

Parents can reduce their child's exposure to junk food ads by setting TV restrictions
Although junk food ads are to blame for persuading children to eat unhealthy food, parents are the ones actually purchasing this food for their children. When a child constantly begs their mother for McDonald's, it is only natural that their mother will give in every so often. However, this demand for fast food can be eliminated, or at least lessened, if the child is not exposed to as many fast food ads. There is still a debate over whether or not restrictions should be made on the TV air time for junk food ads, especially on children's networks. In an interview with Amna Kirmani, a marketing professor at the University of Maryland, Prof. Kirmani gives her stance on the debate.

Regardless of the regulations that the advertising industry must follow, any child who watches television will be exposed to junk food ads. However, parents can reduce this exposure by limiting the amount of TV that their children watch. They can restrict their child's TV watching to no more than two hours a day, and to avoid persuasive junk food ads, they can DVR shows so that their child can fast forward through the commercials. A study by the University of Michigan found that children who regularly watched TV commercials consumed more junk food, and had a distorted view of healthy portion sizes, than households that watched commercial free TV. 

Junk food ads are always going to exist in our world, so it is up to parents to monitor the amount of commercial TV that their children watch. The persuasive techniques used in these ads brainwash children into believing that their product is "healthy," when in reality, most of these products contain tons of sugar and are high in fat. If children continue to watch junk food ads, and parents don't restrict their child's diet, childhood obesity rates will, unfortunately, continue to increase. 

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How Junk Food Advertisements on TV Target Children and Lead To Childhood Obesity

Junk food ads target children

For my ePortfolio post, I am going to research how junk food advertisements on TV are leading to childhood obesity. There are a great deal of food advertisements that incorporate aspects that appeal to children, such as toys or prizes, and thus, persuade kids to want to eat certain foods. Unfortunately, a majority of these advertisements are for high-calorie, low-nutritious foods. Children learn to associate these foods with positive things, like the action figure they received in their McDonald's happy meal. However, they are unaware that consuming these junk foods has negative effects on their health and can lead to obesity.

Studies have been done that show a direct correlation between the increased marketing of junk food to children and the rates of childhood obesity. For example, a study by the University of Michigan found that children who regularly watched TV commercials consumed more junk food than children who watched commercial-free television. In addition, the children who regularly watched TV commercials had a distorted view of healthy portion sizes and choices. The foods that were advertised the most included sugar-sweetened beverages, sweetened cereals, prepackaged snack foods, fast foods, and convenience meals. These foods contain high amounts of sugar, salt, and fat, which lead to weight gain if consumed in excess amounts.

Overall, junk food advertisements are targeting vulnerable, innocent children who don't understand the harms of eating these kind of foods. For my ePortfolio, I am going to research more about how exactly junk food advertisements influence the choices that children make when it comes to eating. In addition, I will discuss a specific example of a company that tried to convince kids to eat a "fourth meal" in their advertisements.

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Audio Summary

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Kanye West Appears Unintelligent and Over-Confident on Twitter, But The News Exaggerates These Flaws and Mocks Kanye

Kanye West is famous for more than just his success in the music industry. He has over 10 million followers on Twitter, and his tweets have been brought up in multiple news stories. Through his tweets, Kanye appears somewhat unintelligent and over-confident, and the news definitely emphasizes these flaws. However, the news has gone overboard and has mocked Kanye on numerous occasions.

Kanye’s Love For Kim Kardashian is Mocked By The Daily Beast

Kanye’s tweets, as well as the way he has talked about Kim to the public, make it clear that he truly loves his wife. However, news sites mock Kanye’s love for Kim and make it sounds like they don’t think their marriage will last long. Reflecting on an interview between Kanye and Kris Jenner (Kim’s mother), the Daily Beast writes, “Then there’s this fantastic segment when Kanye tries to talk about how much he loves Kim but instead epically insults her.” This “epic” insult was Kanye saying that despite the fact that people told him having a relationship with Kim would “damage his credibility as an artist,” he still wanted to be with her. Yes, this comment makes Kim look bad, but this was clearly not Kanye’s intention. The use of words like “fantastic” and “epic” to describe Kanye’s comment demonstrates how the media mocks him and his relationship with Kim.

The VMAs Incident With Taylor Swift Gives Kanye A Bad Reputation

The 2009 VMAs incident when Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift’s award speech caused Kanye to gain a lot of negative publicity. Multiple news articles were posted which depicted Kanye as self- absorbed and arrogant, and many people were offended by his actions. Kanye created a huge scene and he later apologized to Swift for his rude behavior. Two years later, Kanye made a joke about the incident, and tweeted at Britney Spears to congratulate her for taking the number one spot on iTunes. 

News Sites Accuse Kanye of Starting a Twitter War With Britney Spears

Many news sites did not take Kanye’s tweet as the harmless joke that he intended. Despite the clear joking tone and “LOL” that Kanye included, MSNBC and other sites reported his tweet as slander. Kanye reacted by posting a bunch more tweets about how the media needs to learn to take a joke and stop making up stories. He even admits to his poor writing skills and says, “If the media wants to make a story…just say that I have atrocious spelling and bad grammar.” The news had every right to negatively depict Kanye after the VMAs incident, but his harmless, self-mocking tweet to Britney Spears did not deserve such an angry reaction. U.S. Weekly posted an article entitled, “Kanye West Wages Twitter War With Britney Spears.” Clearly, the way the news portrayed Kanye’s tweet was very different from Kanye’s intended meaning. All he was doing was making a joke out of a past incident and congratulating Spears, but somehow the news managed to turn this into a “war.”

Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Kanye’s Interview With BBC, Leading To a Twitter Fight

Another incident when Kanye was publicly mocked was on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show. Jimmy Kimmel had a young boy act out Kanye’s interview with BBC. The interview was summed up in this statement, “He talks about his greatness, some leather jogging pants, and music.” When Kanye saw the mock video that Kimmel produced, he was very offended and went on a twitter rampage, posting multiple aggressive tweets at Kimmel. Kimmel fought back with offensive tweets at Kanye, and eventually Kanye appeared on Kimmel’s talk show where they apologized to each other. From viewing Kanye’s tweets, he seems to have a very bad temper, especially because of his continuous use of caps lock. However, the tweets also show how upset Kanye was about the mock interview, and this detail is left out in news articles. If the news explained why Kanye was so offended, then Kanye would not have looked as bad as they made him look.  

The Twitter Kanye Vs. The Kanye On the News

Kanye’s tweets display that he is very confident in himself and his music, and maybe even a little too self-absorbed. In addition, he makes a lot of grammatical errors, which leads me to think he is not very intelligent. The way that Kanye is discussed on the news is basically just an exaggeration of the person he appears to be in his tweets. The news focuses on Kanye’s big ego and mocks his “unintelligent” remarks. Overall, Kanye’s flaws are emphasized in the news, whereas his Twitter includes his good qualities, such as his love for Kim. 

The U.S. Music Industry is Much Bigger Than That of Africa's, But Africa's Small Industry Continues To Grow

The music industry in the United States is much bigger than the music industry in South Africa. Due to the digital divide, many citizens of Africa do not have access to computers or the Internet, and they listen to music on cassettes. Africans that do have access to the Internet have used the website Musica to download their music. Musica offers over 400,000 songs, and many of these songs are by U.S. artists. However, Musica is very expensive and many Africans cannot afford it. Many resort to illegally downloading music for free.

Similar to people living in Africa, a great deal of U.S. citizens illegally download music. Multiple websites exist where Americans can simply cut and paste the link to a YouTube video and download that song onto their computer within seconds. This quick and easy way of downloading music is not possible in Africa because they use broadband services. Downloading just one song can take up to 15 minutes, whereas in that time, someone in the U.S. could probably download 15 songs. Since it is so easy for Americans to download so many songs for free, it is no surprise that many people have reduced the amount of music they purchase and increased the number of free songs they download. Peer-to-peer file sharing has also caused a decrease in the amount of music that Americans purchase. The Recording Industry Association of America studied the effects of file sharing and found that since the file-sharing site Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 47 percent.

Although U.S. music sales have dropped, we still have much more music purchases and overall, a much bigger music industry than that of Africa. In fact, the U.S. is the largest of the world’s music markets, and it is where the Big 5 music corporations all have headquarters. It is hard for these corporations to work with Africa because the economic situation outside of South Africa means a lack of profitable markets. However, the biggest record label in South Africa, known as Gallo Records, is an exclusive licensee for Warner Music International. This helps Africa’s music industry grow, and the industry has made a lot of progress in the past few years.

One of the major problems with Africa’s music industry used to be that there was no way to download music legally. However, with the creation of Musica, Africans are able to buy music online and download it legally. Musica has definitely helped Africa’s music industry grow, but there is still the issue of Musica’s high-priced songs. Fortunately, this past December, Apple’s iTunes Store was launched in South Africa. Now that Africans have access to thousands of more songs, most of which are much cheaper than songs on Musica, it is likely that more and more people will purchase music. Musica’s marketing and HR manager, Moenieba Abrahams, predicts that CD sales will also increase “as they will benefit from additional exposure through iTunes.” Similar to Africa, the U.S. music industry has benefited from iTunes and the popularity that this store brings to artists. Although Africa’s music industry is much smaller than that of the U.S., it is continuing to grow as more technology is introduced.

Technology is Not a Drug, It is a Medicine That Keeps the World Together

There is a huge difference between an addiction and a habit. Addiction involves a mental or physical aspect, which leaves the addict unable to control his or her choices. When someone has an addiction, they cannot just decide to stop using whatever it is that they are addicted to, and they often have to seek help to end their addiction. In contrast, when someone has a habit of using something, they are able to stop using it whenever they choose (Medical News Today: What is Addiction?) Furthermore, breaking a habit doesn’t cause the painful withdrawal that fighting an addiction involves. Based on the differences between an addiction and a habit, I classify technology use among most people as a habit.

As stated in the article on Internet dependency, many students spend a great deal of time on their phone. Whether they are walking to class or sitting in a boring lecture, students entertain themselves by using their phone. I’ll admit I am one of these students, and when I am sitting in class bored, I always go on my phone. This does distract me from learning, but sometimes my phone actually benefits me in class. I use it to set reminders on my calendar of when I have an exam or when I have an assignment due. Since I always check my phone, I am able to stay on top of my schoolwork with the simple click of a button. However, if I were to forget my phone in my dorm one day and I was not able to use it in class, I would not experience any severe withdrawal. Yes, I would probably be a little anxious to get back to my dorm and check Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but it would not be the end of the world. Thus, I clearly am not addicted to digital media, and using my phone when I’m bored is a habit that I could easily break.

The fact that more and more people are using technology shows how it has become so important in today’s society. People stay connected through technology. We find entertainment through technology. Most importantly, we learn about what is going on in the world around us. Therefore, technology should not be seen as harmful and “addictive,” but rather, a unifying aspect in our society.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/addiction/

Whether a Bullet is Fired in a Video Game or on a Television Show, it Leaves Media Users With An Equally Large Wound

The violence involved in video games and TV shows can have a major impact on people that use these types of media. Video games such as “Halo” and “Call of Duty” require gamers to shoot people and try to kill as many people as possible. Children and teens that take part in these games may experience more aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior. For instance, a study was done where a group of children and teens played a video game that involved shooting cartoon characters, and another group of children and teens played a non-violent video game. These two groups later completed an activity that measured their aggression, and the group that played the violent video game had a 40% higher aggression rate than the other group. Clearly, participating in a violent video game has somewhat of an impact on gamers. On the other hand, television affects people just as strongly, and no participation is needed. According to George Gerbner, watching thousands of murders take place on TV has caused people to see the world as a more dangerous place than it actually is. This problem, known as mean-world syndrome, is only getting worse as the number of reality shows involving violence increases. For example, the television show Breakout displays real life attempts that prisoners have made to escape from jail. The prisoners are extremely aggressive in their breakouts, and some even kill the guards. This is just one of the many violence- filled reality shows that are currently on TV. If media users become more aggressive from playing a pretend video game, just imagine how aggressive they will be after watching a prison guard get brutally attacked by a criminal. 

http://futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=32&articleid=60&sectionid=291

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/breakout