Addictive Advertising

The average child sees about 20,000 fast food commercials every year.[1] With marketing that overwhelming, it's hard for even the most health-conscious parent to maintain influence over their child’s food preferences.  

Children are especially vulnerable to advertising. A child under the age of eight is not yet able to understand the persuasive intent of an advertisement, and even older children often cannot recognize various forms of advertising as marketing.[2] Yet fast food corporations spend hundreds of millions or more each year on marketing that directly targets children.[3]

The advertising works remarkably well; the brand preferences of preschool aged children can be affected by just one 30-second commercial.[4] Preschool children have, in fact, been found to prefer food in McDonald’s packaging over identical food in different packaging.[5]

The food industry touts self-regulation as the answer, pointing towards the industry-funded Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) as proof that they’re acting responsibly. This organization asks corporations to make voluntary changes to advertising directed at children when that violates CARU’s standards.  What they won’t say is that CARU is funded by transnational food corporations like Burger King and McDonald’s, or that marketing to children has only gotten worse since CARU was created.[6]  No wonder - this is clearly a case of the fox guarding the hen house.

For more information about the aggressive marketing of fast food to kids, visit the Center for a Commercial-Free Childhood and The Center for Informed Eating.

1. Mary Story and Simone French, "Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US," International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 1:3 (2004) http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=416565 (accessed February 9, 2009).

2. Institute of Medicine, “Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?” (December 6, 2005), http://www.iom.edu/?id=31330&redirect=0. (accessed February 11, 2009).

3. Federal Trade Commissions, “Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation,” (July 24, 2008,. http://www.ftc.gov/os/2008/07/P064504foodmktingreport.pdf (accessed February 11, 2009).

4. D. Borzekowski, et al., “The 30-Second Effect: An Experiment Revealing the Impact of Television Commercials on Food Preferences of Preschoolers,” v.42 Journal of the American Dietetic Association, (2001): 42-46.

5. T.N. Robinson, et al., “Effects of fast food branding on young children’s taste preferences,” Archive of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 161:8 (2007): 792-797.

6. National Better Business Bureau, “CARU Supporters, 2009" Council of Better Business Bureaus Inc., http://us.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=113&id=62fd31eb-29e7-4f69-b3ed-b00eac4abfb2 (accessed February 20, 2009).

Photo: http://calorielab.com/news/2008/06/15/too-much-screen-time-not-enough-activity/