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Food Ad Study and Its Impact on Children
1-Apr-2007
Written by: Jonathan Napolitano
No. 1 product advertised to kids is food.
A study, released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that food is the number one product advertised to kids. After food, it was then followed by mass media such as music, movies and video games.
Vicky Rideout, vice-president and director of the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health, helmed the study, which was conducted by Indiana University.
The study actually marked the largest ever done on television food marketing to children and teens. Researchers discovered that more than a third of commercials targeted towards children or adolescents are for candy and snacks, which adds fuel to America’s ongoing childhood obesity epidemic.
In doing this study, researchers looked over more than “1,600 hours of television programming broadcast from late May to mid-July in 2005.” The team also examined 30 times more television programming, which was the reason for it being the biggest study thus far. What made this study different from others as well was that, unlike the previous ones, this one also looked at viewing times when children and teens are most likely to actually be watching TV.
It was found that children from the ages of 8 to 12 years old watch the most food commercials, usually averaging just about 21 ads daily. If you calculate those numbers yearly, you’re looking at about 7,600 ads per year. Teens, between the ages of 13 to 17 years old, see roughly 17 food ads daily, or more than 6,000 per year. Finally, the youngsters from ages 2 to 7 years old view about 12 food ads per day, or an estimated 4,400 yearly.
During the children's shows, half of the commercials were devoted to food. The ad statistics from the study show that 34 percent of the commercials were marketed towards snacks and candy, 28 percent were for cereal products and 10 percent promoted fast food companies, such as McDonald's and Burger King.
Not one of the commercials during the study promoted vegetables or fruit, while only 4 percent of the advertised commercials promoted dairy products.
Due to these recent results and this week's Commons' committee report, it's found that if these rates of overweight children continue to skyrocket, youngsters could be the “first in generations to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.” This all stems from the possibility of weight-related chronic illness such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.
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