|
|
(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The US food industry is the second largest advertiser in the country, just behind car companies. Food companies spend billions every year capturing children and adolescents as loyal consumers because children influence over $200 billion in family spending yearly while the USDA spends only $333 million to promote healthy eating. The playing field is anything but fair.
Toddlers spend up to 2 hours a day in front of some type of screen and the time increases till many teens are on devices more hours each day than they spend in school. Researchers have estimated that children see between 20,000 to 40,000 commercials each year and may be exposed to over 360,000 TV ads before they graduate high school. But TV is not the only place for food ads today – computers, YouTube videos, tablets, and cell phones are everywhere. All of these devices promote inactivity while enticing kids to buy and eat branded foods and beverages.
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) sets very specific limits on advertising for children’s programs – 12 minutes/hour for weekdays and 9.5 minutes/hour for weekends. Plus, there has to be separation between the program content and the commercials because young children are unable to separate the two and view the commercials as truthful and factual. These limitations only apply to kids under age 12.
Advertising on the internet, however, is virtually unrestricted. The electronic advertising environment offers entertaining, animated, interactive activities designed to entice children with puzzles, quizzes, riddles, music, games, downloadable wallpaper and screensavers. Integration of food products is commonplace and kids are encouraged to sign up for newsletters or Kid’s Clubs offering coupons. Due to consumer advocacy groups, many children’s website and food company web pages now add the word ‘ad’ or ‘advertisement’ but this can be easily missed, especially by young children who may not even know the meaning of this caution.
Your children are surrounded by food messages all day, every day. Children as young as 24 months use the ‘nag factor’ or ‘pester power’ to influence parents to buy food they want in the store. Fifty percent of the time parents fold to kids’ requests. Do you know if food or beverage companies have contracts for vending machines at your child’s school? The company gets the right to market their product, they often supply the vending machines, cut the school in on some of the profits, or donate needed equipment. In cash strapped school districts, these connections are tempting. They may extend to snacks or even branded food choices sold in the school cafeteria. Are there screen saver food ads on school computers?
Channel One provided free video equipment to schools in exchange for 12 minutes of news programming to be shown daily, two minutes of which was for food and beverage ads. There is no evidence that the daily news programming made students more civic minded but the commercials for fast foods, soft drinks, chips and candy were perceived by students as positive sources. Channel One closed in 2018, after 29 years of influencing a captive audience of junior and senior high school students.
Teens are a ready target for food commercials. They have disposable income, freedom, eat close to 50% of all their meals away from home, love to snack, and are on the cusp of becoming adult consumers. There are many similarities between food ads today and the tactics used to promote cigarettes in the past. Sports figures, the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel helped to push younger teens to smoke. Today, pop stars are endorsing food and beverages. Beyoncé had a $50 million endorsement deal with Pepsi and Latino rapper Pitbull endorsed Dr. Pepper. Teens spend up to 3 hours a day listening to music. If their favorite singer does a promo ad for fast food, soda, candy, snacks or sports drink before their YouTube video, teens take notice. In a survey looking at food ads and celebrity endorsements only one person endorsed the Got Milk! program and one person endorsed Wonderful Pistachios. The rest of the endorsements were for energy dense/nutrient poor choices.
Parental concerns, school board/district awareness, voluntary food company restrictions triggered by consumer pressure, and celebrities using their status to promote healthy foods for kids are all ways to edge toward victory in the screen time battle.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of 30 books.
Available as eBooks from iTunes and Kindle/Amazon:
Diabetes Counter – the most up-to-date information on managing diabetes
Calorie Counter – a weight loss guide that won’t let you down
Protein Counter – put the latest protein recommendations to work for you
Healthy Wholefoods Counter – planet-friendly eating made easy
Complete Food Counter – food counts and nutrition information at your fingertips
Fat and Cholesterol Counter – newest approach to heart-healthy eating
Available in print from Gallery Books:
Most Complete Food Counter, 3rd Ed.
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to: www.TheNutritionExperts.com.