Obesity and advertising

Hi everyone

I was just wondering what your feelings are regarding advertising junk food and childhood obesity. Do you think that if all advertising was stopped in this sector, it would have the desired effect of curbing childhood obesity...or do you think it will not make a difference?

Thanks

We had an argument like this recently because I argued that advertising DOES hurt childhood obesity and others argued against me saying, in the end, it was the parents' choice, not the children.

I believe, on average, advertising junk food to children DOES affect childhood obesity. I think if more parents were more aware of how a child SHOULD eat, it wouldn't have much effect, but I think many parents are either apathetic or unknowledgable (or in denial).

How MUCH of a difference? I dunno. In the end, it DOES come down to the parent. If the parent is knowledgable, he or she can make good choices. If not, I'm not sure lack of advertising would necessarily end the bad choices.

So.. I think there'd be SOME effect to stopping the ads, but I'm not sure how much.

In the UK all tobacco advertising has been banned, tobacco companies cannot sponsor sporting events, smoking in public is forbidden, the pack price is prohibitively expensive and still young people take it up in vast numbers.   I would suggest, therefore that advertising does not play as big a part in decision-making as some think. 

Childen  don't tend to be the ones buying groceries or cooking meals.  Responsible parents ignore the advertising already, the special offers in the supermarket and any 'pester power' and try to give their children a good diet as far as they can.  Packing healthy lunches, encouraging them to eat fruit etc., etc.

But there is a category of child (and I grew up with a few) that don't have that luxury  but are sent out in the morning with some money and told to fend for themselves.  They're the ones buying sweets on the way to school, queuing up for chips at lunchtime and probably doing the same thing at night.   Stopping advertising isn't going to mean they're any better cared for and it won't help them make better decisions.

 

I wouldnt expect it to curb childhood obesity - my childhood had tons of the ads and childhood obesity wasnt as widespread. 

Advertising does encourage pressure within families with parents who are trying to encourage healthy balance.  While that is just another parental responsibility to address, such ads also encourage children.

Because childhood obesity now is problem of this generation, I do see where certain measures could be justified.   Anything close to cigarette or alcohol ad restrictions doesnt seem reasonable but there certainly could be requirements of those advertising nutritionally void food.  I remember before cereal ads started including, "... part of a balanced breakfast". 

I think kids have loved sweets since before there was advertising, and I don't think that will change.

Just because a kid sees a junk food product on TV doesn't mean the parents actually have to buy it for them though. I mean who makes the financial decisions here?

Yeah, like I ALWAYS wanted to have those products they'd advertise heavily on TV and my mom would just be like, haha too bad for you!  She bought me the ones that were decent for you but still really popular like GoGurt, that was a big one, everyone loved GoGurt.  She did buy me Gushers and Fruit by the Foot and stuff but it wasn't like she let me loose on the box, she just packed one in my lunch every day in elementary school.

I don't know if it would curb childhood obesity if they cut out those advertisements, but it would sure make my life alot easier.  Yes, you can just not buy the stuff for your kids. I try not to. However, try going down the grocery store aisle with your kids and hearing "I want that" "I want that" a million times. Its not just tv commercials aimed at kids. Its the nice bright colorful packaging and the funny cartoon characters on the box. My kids watch alot of the commercial free channels but the advertising still lures them the other way, with the low placed bright colorful items on the shelves.  You can't really escape from it. Moderation, is the key, I suppose.

Thanks for all your feedback

My feelings are that as more and more restrictions are put in place, childhood obesity has become a greater problem. Surely, if it was the cause, or a catalyst, this wouldnt be the case.

Do you think that advertising things like portion control and 'good' foods would have a better effect?

 

Anyone?.....

Original Post by lulufit:

I don't know if it would curb childhood obesity if they cut out those advertisements, but it would sure make my life alot easier.  Yes, you can just not buy the stuff for your kids. I try not to. However, try going down the grocery store aisle with your kids and hearing "I want that" "I want that" a million times. Its not just tv commercials aimed at kids. Its the nice bright colorful packaging and the funny cartoon characters on the box. My kids watch alot of the commercial free channels but the advertising still lures them the other way, with the low placed bright colorful items on the shelves.  You can't really escape from it. Moderation, is the key, I suppose.

I was just going to post the same thing. My kids want what they see on tv. I'm having to fight with my kids over their cereal and pretty much everything else. Like I don't have other things to do than to debate the television with my kids and all the reasons why and why not. I wish I could use the excuse my parents gave me "because I said so" I find myself needing to explain WHY I said so all the time.

marketing to kids has changed radically over the last thirty or fourty years.  when i was a little kid (i was born in 1968), there were ads for toys, kids' cereals, and flintstones vitamins during the saturday morning cartoons.  That's about all i remember.  most advertising was aimed at parents, because it was assumed that kids didn't have their own cash.  that has changed; now even little kids have cash and make their own decisions as consumers.  marketers can often by-pass parents.

and the TV advertising aimed at little kids is often indistinguishable from the programming; their little brains don't know they're being sold.

when did they start putting toys in cereal?  when did happy meals come out?  obviously the food alone wasn't enough to tempt kids.

edit: not to mention ronald mcdonald, the hamburgler, etc.  anyone here from vancouver?  remember the pirate pack at white spot?

I was lucky in that I rarely took the kids grocery shopping with me.  My husband usually kept them at home and I went shopping alone.  I enjoyed shopping day because it gave me a chance to get out in the world without kids in tow and I didn't have to endure the endless arguments I heard going on in neighboring carts.  Also, I think that the tremendous popularity of video games has a lot to do with childhood obesity.  As a kid we always spent a lot of time outside playing and were a lot more active then kids are now.  I don't think companies that make junk food should be held responsible for parents not doing their job and monitoring what their kids eat.

When I was a kid, we were only allowed to watch the (one) tv when our parents weren't using it, which meant from 3:30 to 5:00 in the afternoon after school and very early Saturday mornings.  When we couldn't watch tv, we played.  Sometimes in the yard, sometimes in the basement, sometimes running or riding bikes all over the neighborhood, but we played every day.  Yeah, we ate a lot of sugar, but we burned off a ton of sugar, too.  The video games still kind of sucked then, so it wasn't fun to sit still.  I see my niece now and she has two different video game systems, tons of channels geared towards kids her age and spends lots of time online.  She has more reason to sit still than we ever did. She's on the swim team all year, so she is a pretty fit kid, but a lot of her friends seem like they're entirely sedentary.  I think that's more of a problem than advertising.

Original Post by caverlady:

I was lucky in that I rarely took the kids grocery shopping with me.  My husband usually kept them at home and I went shopping alone.  I enjoyed shopping day because it gave me a chance to get out in the world without kids in tow and I didn't have to endure the endless arguments I heard going on in neighboring carts.  Also, I think that the tremendous popularity of video games has a lot to do with childhood obesity.  As a kid we always spent a lot of time outside playing and were a lot more active then kids are now.  I don't think companies that make junk food should be held responsible for parents not doing their job and monitoring what their kids eat.

I agree with you about the video games. I solved this problem by only letting my kids have games rated E. It's really funny how this worked out in my house. My kids RARELY ask for a video game. They know they can't have anything not rated E and aren't interested in many of the E rated games. They have most of the popular gaming consoles and hand held games but only have like one or two games for each. I don't think my kids have played a video game in over 6 months. I've not forbidden the games but have somehow won the battle. My kids are very active in sports and other activities in the community and that could be part of the non interest in gaming as well. Out of 4 kids not one is even slightly over weight.

Hmm a thought came to me about "forbidden fruit" as I was reading this thread.

When kids are quite young, they see the ads for junk food everywhere and of course want it.  If the parents say no no no no all the time, what is the first thing you go out and buy once you have your own money?  I think that was the case with me.   I wasn't really heavy when I was a kid, but started putting it on in my early teens.

So, I guess that doesn't explain childhood obesity - to be honest I think THAT's due to either laziness or lack of time on the parent's behalf.

Not having ads around might help with the "out of sight, out of mind" part of it, but it's important that parent's teach their children about nutrition - and I mean more then just "you can't have that cuz it's bad for you".  My brother and sister-in-law have been teaching their kids why they need certain foods, and they actually will make the healthy choice themselves now, and they're 4 and 6 years old!  When they have a choice between syrup and yogurt on their pancakes, they choose yogurt, and I actually saw one of them about to eat a cookie, stop, think about it, turn to his mom and ask "mom, are cookies healthy"?  She told him that cookies have sugar in them and too much sugar is hard on his body, but the occasional cookie is okay.  He thought about it some more and decided to eat the cookie lol.  But he really made a conscious decision about it - he wasn't just stuffing his face because it was yummy.  And he didn't ask for another one afterwards.  It was amazing to see.

When I was a kid, we only had healthy food in the house, and home-cooked meals every day.  We weren't allowed junk food, and I had never even tasted a fast-food burger and fries until I was a teenager......BUT, despite all this, we were never taught anything about why certain foods are bad, and what our body actually needs, so once I was making my own choices, I unfortunately made the wrong ones.  Not that I'm blaming my parents for my choices, but I have a hard time seeing my nephews doing that in 10 years.

Anyway, this has turned into a bit of a ramble lol.  Just my 2 cents.

When my oldest was pretty little...he seemed to pick yogurt and fruit leather over candy any day...on his own...despite tv adverts for kids. I think he was more interested in the toys really. When we ate out, he never ordered the kids menu..he wanted the salad bar (weird eh?) My youngest is 15 and seems to have the worst sugar addiction. I think it varies child to child, and the parents habits are the biggest influence on a child's choices. My 17 year old complained that the homemade ranch dressing I make for their salads are counter-productive to the whole "salad" idea. He is right to an extent...but I told him that the ranch dressing taught (bribed)  them to eat a wide variety of raw veggies as little kids..and in moderation, it's not so bad. (This was all said while my 22 year old was digging into a salad consisting of so much ranch dressing it was swimming...) I guess I keep a certain amount of "crap" in the house...but I try to keep lots of popcorn, fresh fruit and only whole wheat breads in stock. Activity is key as well...I grew up on a farm in the 80's...we ate lots..but we also were so active that we weren't heavy. I really think that many kids are sitting around too much and parents work long hours. Video games are the baby-sitters...as well as pre-packaged over processed snacks.

i don't think there's a magic formula.  i was lucky enough to grow up in a town that didn't have any fast food chains (it does now).  i was also a picky eater.  i didn't trust the chains not to put pickles, relish, and mustard on my burgers, so i wouldn't order them (learned to like french fries as well as anyone, though).

anyway, i think it's pretty obvious that the biggest factor by far in childhood obesity is cognitive dissonance in the parents: if i admit that my kid has a problem, i have to admit that i have a problem; and if i admit that i have a problem, i have to do something about it.  so i'd better deny the problem.

Absolutely - advertising and obesity do have common connection!

I think it's up to the parents and caregivers, though - to take the time and prepare meals at home, have healthy snacks on hand and teach their children good habits.

Commercials, tv shows, music and toys all have an impact on our young ones. We as parents need to step up and only let our children be involved with what we believe is healthy.

The advertising isn't the main culprit. The main problem is that many parents know very little about nutrition and then don't put any effort into learning. They don't see it as a priority. Add in too much TV, video games and convenience foods and there's a recipe for disaster.

My son is now 21. He was never even chubby. There were a couple of years in his tweens when he wasn't lean, but other than that he's been lean and now very muscular. The couple of years when he wasn't lean, he wasn't very active.

When he was little and I took him to the store, the biggest thing he'd ask for were the sugary cereals. I just simply told him that I wasn't going to pay $4.00 for a box of fluffy sugar. He could have a couple of sweet cereals several times a year, like B-day, Christmas. The only kind of bread I bought was some kind of whole grain. As he got older and went to a friends house and they made sandwiches or toast in the morning, he'd surprise the other mom's by asking for wheat.

"Do you think that advertising things like portion control and 'good' foods would have a better effect?"

Advertising exists largely to sell stuff we never knew we needed!  If we genuinely needed it, we'd be going out and finding it for ourselves without prompting.   No advertiser is seriously going to suggest you buy less of something.   What you're describing is education and we're back to parents and schools to provide it.  

As one of the good guys that works in the fresh produce industry I would love to nationally advertise my wonderful health-giving wares... but the truth is that the margins are so low already and farming on such an economic knife-edge that there is no spare cash for this luxury.   The same is true for most genuinely good foods.... dairy, meat, fish, grains.    Heavily engineered, fancily packaged, cheap-to-make rubbish on the other hand has massive ad spend because it also makes whopping great profits.  You look at Coca Cola and what is it?  A can of mostly water with a dash of flavouring...  probably doesn't cost more than a penny to produce.

I have said it before.... and i will say it again.... it isnt the advertisment making america fat.... IT'S the food.... i think regulations on advertising is silly to an extent.... with recent "stop smoking" campaigns instances of tobacco related cancers have decreased.... however if you check cancer statistics in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, probably up to the 70's tobacco related cancers was not what it is today and has been over the last 10-20 years..... that is because the tobacco was manufactured with all the CRAP it is now!!!

So as i said.... we must regulate that way our food and even our "vices, (tobacco, caffine, and alcohol)...... it's not the advertisment.... it's the manufacturing!!!