Effect of Advertising on American Youth

Advertising campaigns are designed to have a maximum impact on their viewing audience. They promote and glamorize products to entice the consumer into wanting them, and then into ultimately purchasing them. This is especially true of advertising targeted towards American youth. Advertisers bombard children with commercials for fast food or junk food, making these appealing and desirable. At the same time, this youth is similarly barraged with advertising featuring slender models, painting the idolized norm that young people should value and aspire to. However, this goal may be unattainable while eating unhealthy foods, as many children become overweight because of their poor eating habits, with 35% of American children classified as overweight or obese. As a result, the advertising targeting American youth has resulted in a generation of confused and obese children, who are not sure exactly what they should value, or what is necessarily good for them.

Pediatricians believe that a person’s dietary habits begin as a child, and carry through with them into adulthood. These patterns are influenced by a number of different factors, including their social, commercial and media environments. It is also well-established that advertisers use each of these environments as a vehicle to reach children, and promote branded food and beverage products in the consumer marketplace. According to Needleman, “between 1994 and 2004, the rate of increase in the introduction of new food and beverage products targeted to children… substantially outpaced the rate for those targeting the total market.” For example, as shown in Figure 1, many retailers use appealing cartoon characters to catch the attention of young children, increasing their brands’ overall appeal, and making them more popular with younger generations. In fact, more than ten billion dollars is spent each year on advertising directed specifically to children and youth. However, equally important is what effect this marketing has on that focus group.

Children are motivated towards certain types of food, based on the content of the advertising that they see. Researchers offer that between the ages of two and eleven, children absorb information from commercials and rely on that information to make decisions as young consumers. However, these children lack the emotional maturity to understand that these advertisements are designed to convince viewers to purchase something that they may might not have, without having first watched the commercial. By age eleven, these children recognize that they are being “persuaded” to purchase a particular product, but are still not mature enough resist the products advertised. Another study found that this kind of advertising actually affects “children’s preferences, purchase behaviors and consumption.” As a result, these children are consuming excess calories, while exceeding the daily recommended allowances of fat, sugars and sodium. At the same time, children are not consuming sufficient amounts of whole grains, fiber, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and vitamin E. The end result is that children’s health is compromised by these nutritional deficiencies. While this can be remedied by a diet rich in “fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products,” these products are not generally advertised on television, or the internet. Other improvements to children’s diet would require a reduction in the amount of “high-calorie and low-nutrient foods and beverages (including snack foods and sweetened beverages) that they eat.” Because advertisers continue to market “nutrient-poor, calorie-dense foods,” the latter is also not a very likely scenario. However, there is still a certain amount of hope for children’s nutritional future on the horizon.

According to industry experts, advertisements can be restricted (or even banned) if they are demonstrated to promote a public health risk. In fact, certain countries outside of the United States – such as Sweden -- have already restricted advertising specifically geared towards children under twelve. In the United States, opponents of marketing propose various solutions to remedy the problem. The first possible approach is to allow advertisers to continue marketing to children, without intervention. However, this solution does nothing to actually fix this situation. Experts then move on to other solutions, where initially the family is held responsible. They then move across a wide spectrum to an environment where class actions lawsuits are filed against companies who continue to market to children. Regardless of which solution is ultimately implemented, they all achieve the desired effect of limiting children’s exposure to marketing.

Advertising clearly has a significant effect on children. Marketing campaigns regarding food influence their preferences and behavior as a consumer, as well as their eating patterns. This has resulted in a generation of children manipulated by advertising. The viable solution presented of limiting the exposure of children to target advertising appears to be a remedy to this issue. Hopefully, American youth, when left to their own devices, will be able to properly determine which kinds of food has value, and what kind of food is good for them.

Bibliography

Carter, Owen B.J., Lisa J. Patterson, Robert J. Donovan, Michael T. Ewing, and Clare M. Roberts. “Children’s Understanding of the Selling Versus Persuasive Intent of Junk Food Advertising: Implications for Regulation.” Social Science & Medicine 72, no. 6 (2011): 962-968.

Committee on Pediatrics. “Children, Adolescents, and Advertising.” Pediatrics 118, no. 6 (2006): 2563-2569.

Harris, Jennifer L., Jennifer L. Pomeranz, Tim Lobstein, and Kelly D. Brownell. "A Crisis In The Marketplace: How Food Marketing Contributes To Childhood Obesity And What Can Be Done." Annual Review of Public Health 30, no. 1 (2009): 211-225.

Needlman, Robert. “Food Marketing To Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?” Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 30, no. 2 (2009): 183.