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Student 2: High Merit
Please note – These are extracts from one Student’s Response
Marketing to Children Multinational fast food companies use many marketing techniques to
make their products heard of, seen in a positive light, and remembered. One particular focus is
marketing to children through things like pester power, toys, Happy Meals and sponsorships,
which then influence what we eat.
Although multinational fast food companies target nearly all audiences, the main group targeted is
children because they have a lot of control over their parents spending. Marketing to children is
very effective because they buy into things more than adults do and don't know the consequences
such as lifestyle diseases. These practices used by fast food companies are used to promote and
familiarise the public with their brand name. Also because children are the consumers of the
future, multinational fast food companies want to get them loyal to the company's brand from an
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early age. This will mean a lifetime of money coming from these customers. Parents are buying
more things for their children because families have more disposable income with both parents
working, smaller families, and having children at an older age. Plus parents may feel guilty for both
working as they don't spend as much time with their children, so they replace quality time with
their children for material possessions and other things they want. In ‘Challenging beliefs about
the marketing of food’, Robert Quigley, Carolyn Watts state “Choice is important—but we argue
that the right to choose a healthy diet has been all but removed from children today. We live in a
world where the saturation marketing/propaganda of unhealthy food is the norm and environments
support unhealthy choices—and yet we continue to be surprised that we are in an obesity
epidemic.”
One way multinational fast food companies market to children is because of pester power. This is
where children are subconsciously encouraged by multinational companies to pester their parents
for things they want – their products. For example, McDonald's did tests to find out how long on
average it took for parents to give in to their children's pestering about getting McDonald's while
driving. They found out that it took about fourteen kilometres, so McDonald's put their billboards
fourteen kilometres from McDonald's restaurants. Another pester power example is the Ronald
McDonald “Make it click” slogan. It encourages pester power because when children hop into the
car and “make it click” they associate it with McDonald's. So every time children get into the car,
McDonald's will hope they remember the “make it click” slogan and that they will pester their
parents to drive them to McDonald's. Pester power can be very effective, especially when there's
more than one child who all want the same thing because you could please them all at once. This
means that, not just the children's, but our eating patterns have changed to include more junk
foods because multinational fast food companies are influencing us to eat at their restaurants
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through children. When multinational companies influence children to pester their parents, it
makes the parents believe that they should give their children what they want. This makes them
buy their products and give them to our children. The use of pester power is unethical towards the
child and unfair towards the parent - by taking away their control and simply making life harder for
them.
A strategy that a lot of multinational fast food companies have to make children want to go there
and pester their parents to take them there, is that they give away toys with their kids meals. To a
child, that is very appealing. Who would want to have a boring dinner at home when they could get
a McDonald’s Happy Meal that comes with a cool toy just by a bit of nagging? Plus the fact that
the toys are usually a range of collectable items means that children want to go to the fast food
restaurant many times in a short space of time to collect them all (an effective strategy employed
by these companies). McDonalds even has their toys on their website with the whole collection
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and even a step by step visual animated imaging to teach the child how to use their toy. It's a
good thing to nag and pester about too, telling your mum and dad that you only have one more toy
to go and then you've got the whole set. The consumers of the kids’ meals -children have the
belief that healthy home-cooked meals that have vegetables are boring compared to the unhealthy
fast foods because of toy marketing. Because of these changed values they pester their parents to
take them to multinational fast food restaurants to get the food so they can get toys. McDonald's
spends millions of dollars on advertising toys according to the 'Centre for Science in the Public
Interest' (CSPI). However is it really ethical to bribe children with toys to come to your restaurant
and increase all their chances of developing lifestyle diseases and loss of cooking skills?
The iconic toy that has accompanied the McDonald's Happy Meal for decades is at the forefront of
a legal vendetta by an American organisation, who says it unfairly lures children to eat unhealthy
meals. The consumer group claims the restaurant uses toys as a marketing ploy, and is
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threatening to sue the fast food giant for "unfairly and deceptively" marketing to children. New
Zealand anti-obesity campaigner Robyn Toothmath has welcomed the idea, saying proof exists
that children are drawn to meals which come with a toy. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/domcdonald-s-toys-lure-children-3606789
Another way that multinational fast food restaurants make themselves seen by children is through
sponsorships. Sponsorships allow multinational fast food companies to focus on specific target
audiences, and give those people the idea that they care about them. McDonald's heavily
sponsors children's activities because as we already know, children are McDonald's target
audience. For example, McDonald's gives vouchers for free fries with any purchase to the
coaches of primary school sports teams to give to the players of the day. People believe that
McDonald’s is just being kind but it is really a ploy to make money. Parents will take their children
in to get their free fries, but first they have to purchase something, and if they have other children
(which McDonald's would hope for) the parents would have to buy something for them too, and
then they may also buy something for themselves. Free one dollar fries will end up costing a lot E
more than expected which fast food companies love. Children who do road patrol at school also
get the same voucher, so the same effect occurs. This is all just using children to get money from
their parents. A Waikato District Health Board research found that multinational fast food
companies “sponsorship of charities and sports events is partly to blame for New Zealand's
increasing levels of obesity and type two diabetes. Such sponsorship … sends a conflicting
message to children about healthy lifestyle and diet”. I find the last past of this statement to be
extremely accurate as children must think well I've played sport which is good for me, then I get
given McDonald's for doing well so that must be good for me too. This may turn into a bad habit of
buying fast food when you've done something good, which is not a good practice. Multinational
fast food companies also do sponsorships in schools to get even closer to children.
Cadburys sells chocolate to schools a little cheaper so that the school can sell it for the normal
price and they can fundraise for things like school trips. Here, Cadbury makes a lot of money
because they sell heaps more chocolate than they would if schools didn't buy it, even though they
sold it a bit cheaper. David Stuart states in ‘Educator Responses to Food-Related School
Business Relationships from a Socio-ecological and Health Promotion Perspective, 2005 that
“Selling food items as a way of fundraising may be a popular option for schools because they are
particularly easy to organise and may have a high profit margin for the school (i.e. Cadbury‟s
chocolate). Companies are able to work with schools to sell their products, whilst also creating
brand recognition at a young age. Often the children themselves or their families are the primary
customers of such fundraising, potentially increasing their access to energy dense treats.
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Estimates have suggested that several million chocolate bars are sold annually in this way
throughout New Zealand.” Sponsorships from multinational fast food companies have changed
New Zealanders eating patterns because they bribe children, and therefore their parents, to eat at
their restaurants. People believe that multinational fast food companies care about our children
because of the sponsorships that they partake in. However the reality is that once the brand of
McDonalds is firmly planted into a child’s memory, they are considered a consumer for life. This
gives whole families a higher chance of developing lifestyle diseases such as obesity and heart
disease. These fast foods are also low in many nutrients we need such as fibre, vitamins, and
minerals. If people eat this food regularly enough they may develop diseases such as bowel
cancer (not enough fibre), anaemia (not enough iron), scurvy (not enough vitamin C), or many
others. The Waikato district health Board in the article ‘Obesity, diabetes and fast food – the
impact of marketing to children states that “Indirect marketing may have both positive and
negative outcomes for communities (i.e. providing sports equipment to schools and clubs may be
beneficial in providing greater opportunities for physical activity, but may also promote greater
levels of consumption of unhealthy food)”.