Download Roosevelt Larkins Professor Andrus English 1001 3/31/14 Marketing

Roosevelt Larkins
Professor Andrus
English 1001
3/31/14
Marketing unhealthy foods and beverages by food companies target children because they are
easier and more likely to spend money on those products. Adults who view the same
advertisements can make the conscious decision to not purchase a product based on the nutrients
or lack of in those products. In 2005, The Institute of Medicine recommended the food,
beverage, and restaurant industries improve the health of their products and shift their advertising
and marketing practices. IOM recommended placing emphasis on marketing healthier child and
youth oriented beverages and foods. The following year food and beverage companies created
the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, a self-regulatory program administered
by the Council of Better Business Bureaus to limit unhealthy marketing aimed at children under
the age of twelve.
Concern about the effectiveness led congress in 2009 to lead the formation of an Interagency
Working Group on Food Marketing to Children. The group of experts composed from nutrition,
health, and marketers from the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture released
a set of principles in 2011 to improve the nutrition profiles of food marketed to children.
Research done shows that children of color are more inclined to be overweight based upon the
number of advertisements being shown. (Dorfman, Corporate Irresponsibility) On a daily basis
African-American children see twice as many calories advertised in fast food commercials as
opposed to their white counterpoints. Frequently, the most advertised and promoted products are
those which include high-calorie and low-nutrition foods and beverages.
On Spanish language television, over 80 percent of all foods and beverages advertised on
children’s shows are not healthy. Among the companies that vowed to change the child directed
advertisements to encourage healthy food and beverage choices, 78 percent of their ads still
promote unhealthy food or drinks. Food and beverage companies also use sponsorship to expand
the reach of companies and to entice children of color even more. Food and beverage companies
advertise with famous athletes, at sporting events, billboards, festivals, and concerts. These
advertising tactics allow food and beverage companies to advertise to children in every facet of
their everyday lives.
Digital marketing by the big food and beverage companies also allow them to reach children
with ads when parents are not around. Companies have begun advertising on social media sites
such as, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. While surfing the internet children ads for unhealthy
foods are all over. Ad spending for interactive video games is projected to reach $1 billion by
2014, with six million 3-11 year olds visiting some form of virtual game online each month.
(PreventionInstitution.org) With companies ads targeting children with unhealthy foods and
drink online, in public, and in the home on television more children are exposed and in turn want
to eat or drink these foods.