Ask any primary school student the name of their local PM, and you are likely to stare at a blank face. Ask them what Tony the Tiger says, and you are guaranteed to get the slogan, “They’re Grrrreeaat!” Some believe that the influence that television has on children is far greater than what is being taught in school, and may be the cause of the declining healthy eating habits of an entire generation.
Food advertising is one of the biggest industries in the western world, specifically children’s food advertising. Flooding the airwaves of such networks as Nickelodeon, the average child is being bombarded by commercials. Studies were conducted on the amount of advertising that appears on Nickelodeon, and it was found that junk food advertising outnumbered any nutritional food’s advertising by as many as two-thirds or more.
Advertisements for refined sugar-rich foods such as Frosted Flakes, Fruit Gushers, Delicious mini-donuts, and an array of sweets covered the airtime, while things like fresh fruits and vegetables didn’t receive a single minute of promotion. Not one advertisement touted the importance of fresh foods or vegetables.
What the advertisers know, and parents may not, is that a plethora of studies have been carried out for the purpose of manipulating kids into buying food products. While adults are in charge of purchasing, what they may not see is that their children are influencing their decisions. It is no coincidence that as dinner is being made, kids are rushing in to ask for what they have seen on television. Prime time for advertisers is while meals are being prepared in the morning and at night.
The fact is, being bombarded with messages about unhealthy food, with these foods depicted in a positive light, is causing children to develop poor eating habits and to make unhealthy choices. Some studies would go so far as to conclude that the increase in advertising is in direct relation to skyrocketing obesity rates in the American child population.
It isn’t that the foods themselves are making people fat. The problem is that kids aren’t able to understand that they are being manipulated into making choices that aren’t based on what they need or what is good for them, but from the images they see on television. Without the life experience and cognitive skills to critically evaluate advertising messages, children are eating up what they see with fervor and no restraints.
Not everyone in the food industry is on board with the reckless use of children’s advertising. In fact, many companies have joined a coalition to lower the amount of sugar and saturated fat in the products they sell. New regulations are being put into place to force a change in the food industry, but one thing’s for sure: nothing is going to change immediately.
This year, the FDA officially made changes to nutrition labels, requiring additional categories to be added like “added sugars,” but those changes won’t take effect until July 2018. Altering the food industry’s advertising, and recommendations made about it, is slow and arduous. But the facts about sugar, the harms of it, and how we are hurting an entire generation of growing children, can’t be ignored forever.
The reason that Nickelodeon is being studied is not that they are the only offender, but they are, by and large, the worst. Disney also have standards in place when it comes to trying to equalize refined sugar-heavy products versus promoting fresh fruits and vegetables. The corporation has guidelines in place about teaching calorie, fat, sugar, and sodium intake. Until everyone agrees across the board to help the next generation, kids will be the targeted consumer.
While small changes have been made, there is still a long way to go to create change in a new generation that’s facing growing waistlines. These children will soon become adults and reap the negative consequences of food choices they make, and that they were manipulated into through the food industry’s advertising efforts.