Fast Food Advertisements Should Not Be Shown

¶ … Fast food advertisements should not be shown during TV shows for children

Obesity is on an unprecedented rise in America, and the rate of obesity for children has doubled if not tripled during the last decades. There are various reasons given for this epidemic of childhood obesity, but one prominent reason may well be simply the fact that children eat too much. And part of the reason that children eat too much and that much of the food that they are stimulated to eat ids junk food is due to the fast food advertisements that are shown during TV shows for children.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in six children and teenagers are obese - this is three-fold more than a generation ago (HuffPost (March 9, 2012 )) and although specialists believe that there are various reasons for obesity, TV advertisements are increasingly coming to the fore as one of these reasons.

According to the AAP, almost a third of American youngsters eat fast food on any given day, whilst the nation spends more than $110 billion on stuff like burger and French fries. This, according to the AAP, is "more than that spent on higher education, computers, or cars." (HuffPost (March 9, 2012 ))

TV advertising has an implicit effect. Studies show that in 2009, the fast food industry spent $4.2 billion on fast food advertising, and the advertising had an effect. One study, for instance, found that kids who watched advertisements centered around potato chips guzzled 45 per cent more snacks when exposed to these ads than when exposed to ads that featured other products (MSNBC, 2001).

According to a study conducted by the University of Liverpool, obese and overweight children multiplied their food intake by more than 100% after watching fast food advertisements on TV. (Science Daily, 2007). 60 children of varying ages between 9 and 11 were shown various adverts containing both toys and food followed by a cartoon. Food intake was significantly higher following the food advert than it was following the toy advert in all weight groups with obese children consuming more than 134%, overweight more than 100%, and regular weight children consuming more than 83%. It is interesting that the more obese the child, the more he snacks when seeing the ad. In other words, the more intense a hunger the ad evokes in him. Nonetheless, this does not make the ethics of such ads sound. On the contrary, it is making our obese children even more obese. Dr. Jason Halford, Director of the University's Kissileff Human Ingestive Behaviour Laboratory commented: "Our research confirms food TV advertising has a profound effect on all children's eating habits " When will we learn to take his words to heart...

TV ads on fast food are doubling two, if not three times more than they did 30 years ago: Children between the ages of 2 and 11 saw approximately 5,500 food ads on television in 2004, down about 9% from roughly 6,100 such ads in 1977 (MSNBC, 2001).

Given therefore the two premises; the one that childhood obesity is on the rise and generated by junk food, and the other that advertising in general and TV advertising in particular has an implicit and covert effect on readers and viewers, we may readily conclude that fast food advertising has an adverse effect on viewers and should not be shown to children.

Children, particularly, are far more vulnerable to advertising than adults are, being less critical of the medium and more apt to be trusting of adults and their testimony. As reiterative, therefore, it is particularly important that fast food advertising not be featured on TV. Not to anyone. Particularly not to children.

It is too bad that government attempts to bar marketing projects for advertising food to minors are being ignored and way-sided. The Federal Trade Commission calls childhood obesity "the most serious health crisis facing today's youth." (MSNBC, 2001).