Fast Food Stereotypes Targeting Children

“Congress should ban advertising that preys upon children, it should stop subsidizing dead-end jobs, it should pass tougher food safety laws, it should protect American workers from serious harm, it should fight against dangerous concentrations of economic power (Schlosser). People must wonder how is it that a fast food company has so much customers. Advertising is the answer. The power advertisers have to be able to influence so many people 's decisions and affect people’s lives especially the lives of young children is incredible. Advertisers know just who to target and they research how too. In Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation, Schlosser explains to the readers how advertisers use techniques to draw in customers. A technique used is the “cradle-to-grave” which focuses on children to make them lifelong consumers. Like many researcher, Schlosser, has found that advertising to children when they are younger makes them be loyal to the company, and a child 's “brand loyalty” may begin as early as the age of two (43). Fast food advertising reaches out and harms families everywhere. This is why it is crucial that the people to make changes in their lives and change the way fast food is affected us.

Television ads are arguably the most influential form of advertisement for fast food chains considering the fact that there 115.6 million TV homes in the United States, and over half of these homes have at least three TV’s. Today’s children spend on average of 44.5 hours a week in front of some type of screen whether its computer, TV or cellphone. More than any other activity in their lives other than sleeping (American Physiological Association). It has been discovered that children under the age of eight have difficulties telling apart programming and advertising and do not understand the persuasive techniques used on them, making them the main target for fast food companies. By incorporating famous people in TV commercials, people of all ages are tricked into thinking that if they copy the actions of the famous than it is acceptable to give

An average child is exposed to more than 40,000 ads a year, and 20,000 of those ads are supporting junk food and fast food. Advertisers and marketers spend about 100 billion dollars trying to influence the youth and their decisions. The youth are being targeted without even knowing, due to the excessive amount of ads seen everyday and everywhere. Kids are being brainwashed by them because the advertisers use different tactics to draw the youth in. When kids are watching and seeing ads, they sometimes don’t even realize that the ads are influencing them. The advertising around kids have doubled since the last century, the success is unreal for the marketers. The ads affect everyone and their daily life style, but is it leading to the kids and

Fast food companies have made billions exploiting children through enticing advertisements made to make a child feel the need to buy their product. Moreover, food marketing has now targeted young children for over 2 generations in the United States. Children are being specifically targeted from birth by advertising agencies and the reason being that, “Hoping that nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases, companies now plan ‘cradle to grave’ advertising strategies.” (Schlosser 43) These ad agencies know the tendencies and psychology of impressionable children, so by creating a mindset that their brand is special early on in life, they inexplicably control the entire nation. However, if American children are able to recognize brand symbols before they can

Children, however, are more susceptible to media influence because they are more naive. Due to this naivety, children are not aware of the truth behind many things and will believe most anything one tells them, making them perfect targets for advertisements. Fast food companies, particularly McDonald’s, target children through Happy Meals. Cereal companies target children with cute mascots and toys inside the box. A company who took an alternative route to market to children was Kraft and their product, Lunchables. Kraft knew that ultimately, parents were deciding what their children were to eat at lunch and decided to market especially to busy mothers. The parents bought Lunchables for the conveniency but also because their children genuinely like the product. The procedure of appealing to parents in order to market to children is not a new concept however. “Kraft’s early Lunchables campaign targeted mothers. They might be too distracted by work to make a lunch, but they loved their kids enough to offer them this prepackaged gift,” (Moss 268). Parents, eager to please their children, will then buy the food products that their children want, which is not always healthy and this is where the addiction starts. People, including children fall into routines; at lunch time, children want their regular Lunchables. If not given these food products, a “temper tantrum” will ensue or they simply will not eat what they are

They're out there, the bane of every TV enthusiast, rush hour radio-listener, and casual magazine reader. Commercials and ads have become such a common thing in society today that it is rare to see their content and purpose questioned. One of the greatest threats to Americans is obesity, which isn't surprising when one considers the ratio of food and drink ads to those pertaining to different products or services. From fast food chains, to drinks, to a colorful box at the local supermarket, they all approach their advertisements the same way, by targeting the audience most likely to respond positively- the young.

Compared to many other developed countries in the world, the United States has one of the lowest life expectancy ratings. Many factors contribute to this horrifying statistic, the main factor being the food Americans consume on a daily basis. Today, poor nutrition is backed by the wide range of strategies for marketing unhealthy foods. Marketing to children is shown to successfully draw in consumers of all ages. Parents and grandparents want to make their child happy, therefore allowing young kids to influence what food they buy. Although television advertisements aimed towards children generally increase a company’s revenue, the harmful effects of a child’s development through this practice threaten their ability to formulate an opinion

Food advertisements are being very creative with their commercials on television and billboards all around the US. With no doubt they are catching people’s attention, mainly children and adolescents. All the beautiful bright colors a commercial has and the price they are offering makes a good deal to a family. Once they see that they automatically have to get it, because of course it is way cheaper than a salad and other healthier foods. Marketers do this, with the intention of getting consumers hands on their product. Although they spend tons of dollars for a commercial, they will still do it because one way or another they are getting profit from it. All those commercials that have been in trend and that will be in trend, are affecting children

This is obvious to many, but it seems like we often forget to prioritize helping children develop good habits. Presently, we are forced to accept the fact that children love to watch television, play video games, and surf the internet. But, within 40 hours of the most popular television programs for children aged 6-11, 83% of commercials were made up of fast food and sweets (Fabricatore and Wadden). This not only accounts to less physical activity in their daily lives, it also provides an outlet of unhealthy diet promoting. In a single year, it is estimated that children view approximately 10,000 food-related commercials that promote calorie-dense foods (Fabricatore and Wadden). Communication through television is a powerful technique that can be abused, leading viewers to allow decisions to be made for

Fast food promotions appear frequently on programs for preschool children, representing 100% of food-related promotional messages on Playhouse Disney, 59% on PBS Kids, and 46% on Nick Junior in one study.… evidence has suggested direct correlations between food advertising and children's purchase requests, brand preferences, consumption behavior, and overall nutritional intake…. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) concluded that young children are cognitively defenseless against advertising messages, frequently accepting advertising claims at face value. (Warren, et al.

This article is about the strong protection children in America. Too many of our youngest are threatened by a steady blast of industrial-strength advertising on children's television. Some ads, like those for toys and games, mostly threaten the family budget. But the commercials hawking sugary treats or empty calories can be more pernicious. Many health professionals now fear that junk-food advertising to toddlers and pre-teenagers is contributing to soaring rates of obesity and diabetes among the young. According to The Institute of Medicine, in a report last December sponsored by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that ''current food and beverage marketing practices put children's long-term health at risk.'' Another idea from government showed that " The Federal Trade Commission decided last year that the food industry should police itself on marketing low-nutrient foods to increasingly fat children". But these progress are not strong enough; therefore, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and two Massachusetts parents have announced plans to sue Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon, and the Kellogg Company. These advocates of healthy food have accused both companies of ''unfair and deceptive'' junk-food marketing to children under the age of 8. They have argued that high-powered ads aimed at children as young as 2 years old is ''creepy and predatory.''

Fast food advertisement agencies take advantage of the ignorance of children to scam them into wanting unhealthy meals. Each year, the fast food industry spends over $3 million of advertising targeted towards children. Half of television advertisement is used during children’s shows and with cartoons. Out of all the factors

As stated in an article written by the American Psychological Association (APA), “The Impact of Food Advertising On Childhood Obesity”, half of the advertisements exposed to children are food orientated. And, the majority of those food ads are advertising unhealthy products, “Food ads on television make up 50 percent of all the ad time on children’s shows. These ads are almost completely dominated by unhealthy food products (34 percent for candy and snacks, 28 percent for cereal, 10 percent for fast food, 4 percent for dairy products, 1 percent for fruit juices, and 0 percent for fruits or vegetables). Children are rarely exposed to public service announcements or advertising for healthier foods,” (APA). By conducting studies on children roughly under the age of 16 and analyzing their television watch time and weight (or more specifically their BMI scores), a possible causal relationship could be

One of the many media-related problems is the teen/tween market. The problem here is that marketers and, to a lesser extent, consumers are becoming obsessed with it. This is problematic because everyone is losing money for the wrong reasons. Billions of dollars are being spent to tell teens that their product is cool and to spend billions of their own and their parents money to buy those products. And it’s working. Marketers are exploiting teens’ developing, self-identifying stage in their life to take their money. For example, according to the informational text: “Just the Facts About Advertising and Marketing to Children” by Betsy Taylor, a typical child sees about 55 or more ads daily. Also, $13,000,000,000 of the $230,000,000,000 being spent to advertise, are used specifically for advertising food and drink to teens and tweens. This demonstrates the problem because advertisers are putting a plethora of

About a third of children in the U.S. are considered overweight or obese, and researchers believe television advertising is a significant contributing factor (4). Exposure to television advertising is basically universal and the ads present foods as desirable and attractive. Children have been shown to be far more receptive to television advertising messages than classroom lessons (3). It leaves a harder lasting impression on them because the food products are presented in a cool, fun way that attracts children. Most of the time, children would pick foods that they may not even like, simply because they think it’s the cool thing to eat and once a kid gets his mind set on what they want, it is very hard to steer them away from wanting it. Television ads for foods geared toward children are usually fun, and bright with animations and lots of cool characters that the children can relate to. This directly influences the child’s food preference and unfortunately most of these ads are for processed, unhealthy food products like cereals, snacks, fast food, and soft drinks. In the U.S., there are few restrictions on food ads, but that's not the case in the U.K., where junk food can't be marketed on children's television (4).