Advertising and Childhood Obesity

According to the US Disease Control Center (2007), the obesity rate of children aged 6 to 11 years in the United States has increased about 5 times compared to the 1970s (Yu 87). Today, there are more than 9 million children from the ages 6 to 11 who are considered obese in the United States (Yu 87). The real question is what is the exact cause of childhood obesity today. Some people think that there is a relationship between children watching television and advertising obesity.

Although advertisements continue to rotate and continue attracting children, the contribution of television food advertisement to childhood obesity has become a big social problem, and as a result, the limitation of advertisement of "TV junk food" for children Or a full ban is required. The Children's Food Advertising Alliance aims to promote the health of children in Australia by calling for prohibition of all TV food advertisements, children 0 to 12 occupying the majority of viewers. Furthermore, please do not use children's experience and innocence to promote food and drink. The main message to the children is related to fun, cool and delicious food. This is reinforced by advertisements for children who enjoy consumption and enjoy products directly related to young viewers. (Http://www.youngmedia.org.au/mediachildren/03_03_ads_food.htm#food)

Television advertising affects the ability to change the purchase of children's food, and there may be relevance between food advertisement and child's obesity. Food advertisements can lead to a lack of judgment of children and often ignore health-conscious information such as importance of fruits and vegetables intake. This leads to misunderstanding which product is healthy and which is not healthy. The company's advertisement may affect the tendency of eating or eating a snack of viewers unconsciously, even if they are not hungry. Television may affect the advertisement of children's junk food through fraudulent advertisements. One way to accomplish this is to use cross promotional ads that use kids program cartoons and toys as a tool to promote food. Advertisers can basically persuade children to purchase junk food and eat it