The Impact of Food Marketing on Children
Currently, 35% of American children are overweight or obese, and this number continues to rise. Childhood obesity is associated with higher prevalence of Type 2 diabetes, which is expected to increase 36.5% in the U.S. in the next 25 years, and other chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and asthma. Study after study associate food advertising with unhealthy diets, obesity, and poor health outcomes in children. The food industry claims that this advertising only affects brand choice, not children's overall diet; however, scientific research indicates otherwise.
Food marketing to youth has been shown to increase preference for advertised foods; consumption of advertised foods; overall calorie consumption; requests to parents to purchase advertised foods (known as "pester power"); and snacking. Recently, Rudd Center researchers found that food advertising on television triggers automatic eating of available foods in both children and adults.
Numerous researchers and government agencies conclude that exposure to food marketing directly affects young people's diets and health:
"...it appears likely that the main mechanism by which media use contributes to childhood obesity may well be through children's exposure to billions of dollars of food advertising and cross-promotional marketing year after year, starting at the youngest ages, with children's favorite media characters often enlisted in the sales pitch... Research indicates that children's food choices - and parents' food purchases - are significantly impacted by the advertising they see."
-- Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004
"...marketing affects food choice and influences dietary habits, with subsequent implications for weight gain and obesity."
-- World Health Organization, 2004
"The research evidence is strong showing that preschoolers' and grade school children's food preferences and food purchase requests for high sugar and high fat foods are influenced by television exposure to food advertising"
-- Story & French, Int J Behav Nutr Phys Activity, 2004
Suggested Reading
Kaiser Family Foundation. 2007. Food for thought: Television food advertising to children in the United States.
Kaiser Family Foundation. 2006. It's child's play: Advergaming and the online marketing of food to children.
Moore ES & Rideout VJ. 2007. The online marketing of food to children: Is it just fun and games? Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. 26(2), 202-220.
