References: Batada, A. Dock, M. Wootan, M. Story, M. (2008) 'Nine out of 10 Food Advertisements Shown During Saturday Morning Children's Television Programming Are for Foods High in Fat, Sodium, or Added Sugars, or Low in Nutrients.', Journal of the american dietetic association, Vol 108, Issue 4, Pages 673-678.
A 2005 review by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies concluded that food marketing influences children’s food preferences, consumption, and health. Given the powerful influence of marketing on children’s diets, this cross-sectional study examined the types of foods, the nutritional quality of those foods, and the marketing techniques and messages used in food advertising during Saturday morning children’s television programming.
During 27.5 hours of programming in May 2005, 49% of advertisements shown were for food (281 food advertisements out of 572 total advertisements). The most commonly advertised food categories were ready-to-eat breakfast cereal and cereal bars (27% of all food advertisements), restaurants (19% of food advertisements), and snack foods (18% of food advertisements). Ninety-one percent of food advertisements were for foods or beverages high in fat, sodium, or added sugars or were low in nutrients. Cartoon characters were used in 74% of food advertisements, and toy or other giveaways were used in 26% of food advertisements. About half of food advertisements contained health/nutrition or physical activity messages and 86% of food advertisements contained emotional appeals.
The majority of foods advertised to children on Saturday morning television programs exceeds recommended levels of fat, added sugars, or sodium, or are low in nutrients, and as such, are out of balance with the foods recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Most advertised foods are high in added sugars (59% of food advertisements), total fat (19%), sodium (18%), and/or saturated and trans fats (17%). Moreover, few advertised foods are those that children should eat more often.
We found wide discrepancies between what health experts recommend children eat and what marketing promotes as desirable to eat. Although parents can model and encourage healthful eating, companies have large advertising budgets, market research, cartoon characters, and sophisticated marketing techniques to influence children’s food choices and preferences. However, recently a number of companies have been making changes to their policies for marketing to children. One approach by food and entertainment companies is the application of nutrition standards to determine which foods it will market to children. For example, Kraft and PepsiCo have developed nutrition standards for their respective Sensible Solutions and Smart Spot labels. Those company standards are similar to those used in this study. Kraft, General Mills, Kellogg, and the Disney Company restrict certain children’s marketing to only those products that meet their nutrition standards. (Kraft, Kellogg, and General Mills also abstain from advertising to children younger than age 6 years.) Health advocates have been encouraging all food companies, restaurants, entertainment companies, and others that market food to children to adopt strong nutrition standards and apply them to all food marketing to children, including on television, on the Internet, in schools, and on packaging.
Another interesting finding of this study is that many Saturday-morning children’s television advertisements include health messages alongside foods that are high in fat, sugars, or sodium, or low in nutrients. Though almost all of the food advertisements were for foods high in fat, sugars, or sodium, or low in nutrients, 42% of the advertisements had a health/nutrition message. For example, an advertisement for Airhead Fruit Spinners fruit-flavored snacks (Perfetti Van Melle, Milano, Italy) contained the message, “with real fruit flavor and vitamin C charged crystals.” Forty-seven percent of food advertisements had a physical activity message, such as an advertisement depicting children wakeboarding after eating Cheetos (PepsiCo Inc, Purchase, NY). A recent study found that food advertisements depict children engaged in physical activity significantly more frequently than other advertisements aimed at children (30). Although several food companies and trade organizations have launched programs to promote more healthful lifestyles (6), when coupled with foods of poor nutritional quality, health/nutrition and physical activity messages are likely to be misleading and perhaps do more to promote unhealthful eating than to promote health.
Food and nutrition professionals and others concerned about child nutrition and health can advocate, both personally and within their professional capacities, for more responsible food marketing to children. With clients, food and nutrition professionals can reinforce the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation that families limit children’s screen time (including television, movies, and Internet) to no more than 2 hours each day. In addition, to achieve a more healthful balance of food messages to children, food and nutrition professionals can join others to work to limit the marketing of nutrition-poor foods in schools, as the American Dietetic Association has supported through local school nutrition and physical activity wellness policies (17). Food and nutrition professionals also can urge food companies to stop marketing low- nutrition foods to children through television, food packaging, the Internet, and other approaches, and instead increase marketing of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthful foods that children are under consuming.
This article focuses on saturday morning children's television. This is one of the key timeslots where most children would be watching television and so food marketers will see this as an opportunity to promote as much as they can within a short space of time.
Like many other readings, this article states that food marketing influences children’s food preferences, consumption, and health. There is no wonder that they are having such a huge influence when they are making use of every possible way they can to get their message across to children.
This study found that the majority of foods advertised to children on Saturday morning television programs exceeds recommended levels of fat, added sugars, or sodium, or are low in nutrients. So, children are being promoted tonnes of unhealthy foods and hardly any healthy foods. Why aren't food marketers for healthy foods using these tactics? I'm sure it would make a lot of people happy if all of these sneaky promotional tactics were being used to promote healthy lifestyles compared to unhealthy junk food.
There are health professionals out there giving advice on what they believe is best for children to eat, however, the marketers have a completely different concept on what they will promote as 'healthy to eat'. This makes it confusing for children as they are being convinced that the foods they are being promoted, and consuming, are healthy and good for them, just because the tv advertisement said so. There are an increasing number of policies in place where food marketers are trying to make small changes such as putting nutritional guidelines in place so they can't market anything too unhealthy directly towards children. They are also trying to convince people that their foods have some kind of health benefit, even when they are very unhealthy in every other way. This can be even more dangerous than not stating the health benefit at all as people may see this as an excuse to consume excessive amounts and rely on it.
Overall, the article comes to a very common conclusion amongst my readings so far. It notes that changes need to be made such as more responsible food marketing to children, achieve a more healthful balance of food messages to children, limit the marketing of nutrition-poor foods in schools, urge food companies to stop marketing low- nutrition foods to children through television, food packaging, the Internet, and other approaches, and instead increase marketing of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthful foods that children are under consuming.
A 2005 review by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies concluded that food marketing influences children’s food preferences, consumption, and health. Given the powerful influence of marketing on children’s diets, this cross-sectional study examined the types of foods, the nutritional quality of those foods, and the marketing techniques and messages used in food advertising during Saturday morning children’s television programming.
During 27.5 hours of programming in May 2005, 49% of advertisements shown were for food (281 food advertisements out of 572 total advertisements). The most commonly advertised food categories were ready-to-eat breakfast cereal and cereal bars (27% of all food advertisements), restaurants (19% of food advertisements), and snack foods (18% of food advertisements). Ninety-one percent of food advertisements were for foods or beverages high in fat, sodium, or added sugars or were low in nutrients. Cartoon characters were used in 74% of food advertisements, and toy or other giveaways were used in 26% of food advertisements. About half of food advertisements contained health/nutrition or physical activity messages and 86% of food advertisements contained emotional appeals.
The majority of foods advertised to children on Saturday morning television programs exceeds recommended levels of fat, added sugars, or sodium, or are low in nutrients, and as such, are out of balance with the foods recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Most advertised foods are high in added sugars (59% of food advertisements), total fat (19%), sodium (18%), and/or saturated and trans fats (17%). Moreover, few advertised foods are those that children should eat more often.
We found wide discrepancies between what health experts recommend children eat and what marketing promotes as desirable to eat. Although parents can model and encourage healthful eating, companies have large advertising budgets, market research, cartoon characters, and sophisticated marketing techniques to influence children’s food choices and preferences. However, recently a number of companies have been making changes to their policies for marketing to children. One approach by food and entertainment companies is the application of nutrition standards to determine which foods it will market to children. For example, Kraft and PepsiCo have developed nutrition standards for their respective Sensible Solutions and Smart Spot labels. Those company standards are similar to those used in this study. Kraft, General Mills, Kellogg, and the Disney Company restrict certain children’s marketing to only those products that meet their nutrition standards. (Kraft, Kellogg, and General Mills also abstain from advertising to children younger than age 6 years.) Health advocates have been encouraging all food companies, restaurants, entertainment companies, and others that market food to children to adopt strong nutrition standards and apply them to all food marketing to children, including on television, on the Internet, in schools, and on packaging.
Another interesting finding of this study is that many Saturday-morning children’s television advertisements include health messages alongside foods that are high in fat, sugars, or sodium, or low in nutrients. Though almost all of the food advertisements were for foods high in fat, sugars, or sodium, or low in nutrients, 42% of the advertisements had a health/nutrition message. For example, an advertisement for Airhead Fruit Spinners fruit-flavored snacks (Perfetti Van Melle, Milano, Italy) contained the message, “with real fruit flavor and vitamin C charged crystals.” Forty-seven percent of food advertisements had a physical activity message, such as an advertisement depicting children wakeboarding after eating Cheetos (PepsiCo Inc, Purchase, NY). A recent study found that food advertisements depict children engaged in physical activity significantly more frequently than other advertisements aimed at children (30). Although several food companies and trade organizations have launched programs to promote more healthful lifestyles (6), when coupled with foods of poor nutritional quality, health/nutrition and physical activity messages are likely to be misleading and perhaps do more to promote unhealthful eating than to promote health.
Food and nutrition professionals and others concerned about child nutrition and health can advocate, both personally and within their professional capacities, for more responsible food marketing to children. With clients, food and nutrition professionals can reinforce the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation that families limit children’s screen time (including television, movies, and Internet) to no more than 2 hours each day. In addition, to achieve a more healthful balance of food messages to children, food and nutrition professionals can join others to work to limit the marketing of nutrition-poor foods in schools, as the American Dietetic Association has supported through local school nutrition and physical activity wellness policies (17). Food and nutrition professionals also can urge food companies to stop marketing low- nutrition foods to children through television, food packaging, the Internet, and other approaches, and instead increase marketing of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthful foods that children are under consuming.
This article focuses on saturday morning children's television. This is one of the key timeslots where most children would be watching television and so food marketers will see this as an opportunity to promote as much as they can within a short space of time.
Like many other readings, this article states that food marketing influences children’s food preferences, consumption, and health. There is no wonder that they are having such a huge influence when they are making use of every possible way they can to get their message across to children.
This study found that the majority of foods advertised to children on Saturday morning television programs exceeds recommended levels of fat, added sugars, or sodium, or are low in nutrients. So, children are being promoted tonnes of unhealthy foods and hardly any healthy foods. Why aren't food marketers for healthy foods using these tactics? I'm sure it would make a lot of people happy if all of these sneaky promotional tactics were being used to promote healthy lifestyles compared to unhealthy junk food.
There are health professionals out there giving advice on what they believe is best for children to eat, however, the marketers have a completely different concept on what they will promote as 'healthy to eat'. This makes it confusing for children as they are being convinced that the foods they are being promoted, and consuming, are healthy and good for them, just because the tv advertisement said so. There are an increasing number of policies in place where food marketers are trying to make small changes such as putting nutritional guidelines in place so they can't market anything too unhealthy directly towards children. They are also trying to convince people that their foods have some kind of health benefit, even when they are very unhealthy in every other way. This can be even more dangerous than not stating the health benefit at all as people may see this as an excuse to consume excessive amounts and rely on it.
Overall, the article comes to a very common conclusion amongst my readings so far. It notes that changes need to be made such as more responsible food marketing to children, achieve a more healthful balance of food messages to children, limit the marketing of nutrition-poor foods in schools, urge food companies to stop marketing low- nutrition foods to children through television, food packaging, the Internet, and other approaches, and instead increase marketing of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthful foods that children are under consuming.
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