Food Advertising: The Impact Of Food Advertising On Children

Did you know that a thirty second commercial can influence brand preferences in children as young as two years old? Well, believe it ("Media & Health"). Kids are being heavily exposed to food advertising, and there are many questions on how they are influenced, and if it is a good or bad influence in their lives. Therefore, food advertising with kids has a big, bad influence on this generation because of its harmful consequences. When kids are in contact with advertising, they are being persuaded to eat unhealthy foods and the majority of them do not recognize it. For this reason, companies are using children as an important target to develop their economy. Also, while being influenced by advertising, many eating disorders such as childhood obesity has increased a lot around the world. Kids are being exposed to advertising a huge amount of their time per day, which gives food companies the opportunity to advertise and induce kids to consume unhealthy foods. For instance, companies

“Advertisers pay $200,000 dollars for advertising time and the opportunity to target 40% of the nation’s teenagers for 30 seconds” ("The Impact of Food Advertising”). This quote shows how essential is advertising for food companies, they have the ability of generating a big influence on children by just creating a few enjoyable, colorful, and fun ads. However, children under the age of eight do not recognize the persuasive intent of ads but, they have a remarkable ability to recall content and produce unhealthy food preferences which later becomes part of their daily diet ("The Impact of Food Advertising”; “Media & Health”). Therefore, food companies know the children’s weakness and are taking full advantage of it. In summary, kids are being brainwashed by food companies which promote the consumption of unhealthy