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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.