Facts of Life
Facts of Life:
Issue Briefings for Health Reporters
Vol. 9, No. 4
April 2004
Sweet-Talking the Kids: Not-So-Hidden Persuasion
The Issue
The Facts
Regulating Food Advertising
Expert Sources
References
The Issue:
You won’t see cigarettes advertised during the Barney hour
or beer pushed on Nickelodeon, but that doesn’t mean children are getting
a steady diet of healthy advertising, according to a slew of new studies. Now
that Big Macs have become the new Marlboros in terms of their effect on public
health, researchers are increasingly concerned about advertising messages that
bombard children daily.
Are Ads Unhealthy?
A recent report by
the Kaiser Family Foundation sums up the worry, saying “it appears likely that the main mechanism by which media
use contributes to childhood obesity may well be through children’s
exposure to billions of dollars’ worth of food advertising and cross-promotional
marketing.” [1] But researchers admit the link between advertising
and children’s actual health behaviors is not yet well established.
More studies are needed, they say, to determine whether advertisements directly
affect children’s overall food intake, exercise patterns and smoking
and drinking habits.
Children’s advertising is pervasive: McDonald’s Barbie now comes
with french fries on a fast food tray. Hershey Foods Corp. publishes the book “More
M&M’s Brand Chocolate Candy Math.” Stealth methods of marketing
to kids have dramatically increased in the last decade, for not just food but
ad-restricted goods like tobacco and alcohol.
The Facts:
- Children see an average
of 40,000 television ads a year. The majority of ads targeted at children
sell candy, cereal and fast food. [2]
- Several
studies show a link between the number of hours of television watched
and the number of children’s requests to their parents
for specific food items. [6]
- A study of 2- to 6-year-olds found that the children
who watched ads during a popular cartoon were more likely to prefer
products shown in the
ads than children who watched the cartoon without ads. [3]
- After
analyzing a number of studies, the American Psychological Association
concluded that children younger than
7 or 8 years old do not have the
critical thinking skills to understand the “persuasive intent” of
television commercials. [9]
- One year after the launch of a CDC ad campaign
to encourage physical activity among 9- to 13-year-olds, 9- and
10-year-olds who were familiar
with the campaign were more active than their peers who did not
know about the ads. [8]
- In 2001, one-third of elementary schools, half
of middle schools and almost three-fourths of high schools
in the United States had a contract
with a company to sell soft drinks on campus. [10]
- As of January 2004, Arkansas is the only
state that has passed legislation banning vending machines
in elementary schools. Only a handful of others
have any kind of comprehensive regulation of commercial activities
in schools. Legislation was pending in 22 states, however.
[7]
- A 2003 study found that teens who are impulsive,
take risks and seek new experiences may be more receptive
to cigarette ads. [4]
- Nonsmoking teens who recognize the brand
in their favorite cigarette ad and are willing to use
or wear tobacco-branded products say they are
more likely to start smoking than those without a brand
preference. [5]
- In a survey of 35 major U.S. magazines,
researchers found the rate of beer and liquor advertising
increased 1.6 times for every million adolescent
readers. Wine ad rates were not linked to teen readership.
[11]
- A study of 1,530 eighth-graders
suggests boys are more likely than girls to be
aware of and remember beer ads, and may be more
likely to drink as
a result. [12]
- About
13 percent of visitors to 55 alcohol company Web sites
were under 21, the legal
drinking age.
The sites most often frequented by teens
marketed beer and “malternatives” — sweetened
alcohol drinks. [13]
Regulating
Food Advertising
In
the late 1970s, the culprits were Coco-Puffs and other sweetened
cereals.
Armed with a lengthy research review by the National
Science Foundation, the Federal Trade Commission supported banning
television advertising to small children too young to understand “the
selling purpose of advertising” and limiting sugar-laden food
ads aimed at older kids. [14] The FTC proposal was promptly buried
under furious complaints from the food industry, and Congress halted
all FTC funding until it could remove the agency’s power to regulate
unfair advertising practices.
Despite
its inauspicious history, the movement to regulate advertising to
kids
is again attracting followers, thanks to startling statistics
behind America’s childhood obesity epidemic. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the proportion of overweight
children age 6 to 11 has more than doubled since 1980. For teens, the
proportion has tripled during that period. [15]
While
researchers study how food ads might influence this trend, policy
makers are
holding debates about whether to regulate child-targeted
advertising. The issue is caught up in the larger argument over whether
bulging waistlines are mostly a matter of individual responsibility
or the product of a “toxic environment of low-cost, high-fat
food and less exercise,” says Harold Goldstein, Dr.P.H., of the
California Center for Public Health Advocacy.
“To the extent that it is the environment, new public policies
are required” to fight the epidemic, according to Goldstein.
Margo
Wootan, D.Sc., nutrition policy director at the Center for Science
in the
Public Interest, agrees. “If companies were marketing
broccoli and bananas to kids, there would be no reason for concern.
Marketing has a negative effect on children’s diets because virtually
all of the foods marketed to children are high in either calories,
salt, saturated fat or refined sugars and low in nutrients.”
In recent years, food advertising to children has leapt off the television
set to less typical venues. At a recent Institute of Medicine meeting,
Alex Molnar, Ph.D., of Arizona State University presented data showing
that commercialism in schools, including vending contracts and educational
materials sponsored by food companies, has increased rapidly since
1990.
Wootan and others have pressed for a bill that would set advertising
standards limiting the kinds of food that could be marketed to children.
But so far, the administration has been cool to the idea, preferring
to encourage companies to voluntarily change marketing practices.
Some
companies are doing that. Michael Mudd, Kraft Foods Inc. executive
vice president
for global corporate affairs, said his company was seeking “an
outright end to all in-school ads and promotion” and will not
aim future ads at preschool kids.
Expert
Sources:
Margo Wootan, D.Sc.
Center for Science in the Public Interest
(202) 332-9110
mwootan@cspinet.org
Harold Goldstein, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
California Center for Public Health Advocacy
(530) 297-6000
info@publichealthadvocacy.org
Dale Kunkel, Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Barbara, Washington Center
(202) 974-6372
kunkel@comm.ucsb.edu
Kelly Brownell, Ph.D.
Yale Center for Eating & Weight Disorders
(203) 432-7790
kelly.brownell@yale.edu
References
1. Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation (2004). The role of media in childhood obesity: Issue
brief.
Last accessed on March 10, 2004 at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=32022.
2. Kunkel, D. (2001) Children and television advertising. Handbook
of Children and the Media, D. Singer and J. Singer, eds. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage Publications, p. 375-393.
3. Borzekowski, D. And T. Robinson (2001) The 30-second effect: An
experiment revealing the impact of television commercials on food preferences
of preschoolers. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 101,
42-46.
4. Audrain-McGovern, J. et al. (2003) Which adolescents are most receptive
to tobacco industry marketing? Implications for counter-advertising
campaigns. Health Communication, 15, 499-513.
5. Straub, D.M. et al. (2003)
Effects of pro-and anti-tobacco advertising on nonsmoking adolescents’ intentions
to smoke. Journal of Adolescent Health, 32, 36-43.
6. Coon, K.A. and K.L. Tucker
(2002) Television and children’s
consumption patterns: A review of the literature. Minerva Pediatrics,
54, 423-436.
7. National Conference of State Legislatures http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/vending.htm,
March 1 update, accessed March 15, 2004.
8. National campaign to get kids physically active is working. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention news release, February 17, 2004.
Last accessed on March 10, 2004 at http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r040217.htm.
9. The American Psychological Association (2004). Report of the APA
Task Force on Advertising and Children. Last accessed on March 10,
2004 at http://www.apa.org/releases/childrenads.pdf.
10. Wechsler, H. et al. (2001) Food service and foods and beverages
available at school: results from the School Health Policies and Programs
Study 2000. Journal of School Health, 71, 313-324.
11. Garfield, C.F. et al. (2003) Alcohol advertising in magazines
and adolescent readership. Journal of the American Medical Association,
289, 2424-2429.
12. Collins, E.L. et al. (2003) Predictors of beer advertising awareness
among eighth graders. Addiction, 98, 1297-1306.
13. The Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth. Clicking with kids:
Alcohol marketing and youth on the Internet. Last accessed on March
10, 2004 at http://camy.org/research/internet0304/report-low.pdf.
14. Federal Trade Commission (1981). FTC
staff report on television advertising to children. Washington, D.C.
15. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overweight among U.S.
children and adolescents. National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey. January 5, 2004. Last accessed on March 10, 2004 at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/databriefs/overwght.pdf.
The Center for the Advancement
of Health is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes
greater recognition of how psychological, social, behavioral,
economic and
environmental factors influence health and illness. The Center advocates the highest
quality research and communicates it to the medical community and the public. The
fundamental aim of the Center is to translate into policy and practice the growing body of
evidence that can lead to the improvement and maintenance of the health of individuals and
the public. The Center was founded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which continue to provide core funding. Funding for
this series was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
For Information Contact:
Kristina Campbell
Editor, Health Behavior News Service
Center for the Advancement of Health
2000 Florida Ave., NW, Suite 210
Washington, DC 20009
p. 202.387.2829 / f. 202.387-2857
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© Copyright 2004, Center for the Advancement of Health
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