The Myth Of Choice: How Junk-Food Companies Target Our Children

George Parker once said, “The only people who care about advertising are the people who work in advertising." Advertisers use many different techniques that target children and teens. Many people do not realize how harmful this can turn out to be. Advertising plays a harmful role in the lives of youth because it poses health risks, prevents children and teens from saving money, and exposes them to way too many ads.

One way that advertising is harmful is advertising poses health risks to youths. In a video titled, “The Myth of Choice: How Junk-Food Marketers Target Our Kids,” narrated by Anna Lappe, it talks about how advertisers target youths. In the video it states, “...only 16% of kids get balanced food.” Foods that are advertised the most,

such as fast food and junk food, do not give the proper balance of nutrients and vitamins that kids and teens need. In the video, it also talks about how ⅓ of youths will have diabetes on the next few years. This shouldn’t be true because instead of advancing and getting better in the future, it looks like time is turning back and these kinds of problems are going to be an issue. People need to realize that advertisers are taking advantage of people and it needs to stop before it becomes an even bigger issue.
Another way that proves advertising is harmful and unnecessary is that advertisers are taking advantage of not only people in general, but are taking advantage of young kids and their money.

In an article titled, “Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US,” by Mary Story and Simone French, it talks about how advertisers are targeting children and teens. Based on what I read, in the U.S. alone, adolescents spend 140 billion dollars annually while children spend 12-25 billion dollars annually. Youths are spending money that could go towards their college funds and things that they need. (add something about article facts about marketing to children) In fact, in an article titled, “$211 Billion and So Much to Buy American Youths, the New Big Spenders,” it talks about how people ages 8-24 years old spent $211 billion in 2012. If they spent this much money in 2012, the cost most likely went up in 2017 since youths have so many ways of being exposed to ads currently. This can lead to many that shouldn’t be a

problem.
One more way that advertising is turning out to be harmful is that advertisers are specifically targeting children and teens, which exposes them to way too many ads.

This leads to all the issues involving advertising. In an article titled, “Facts About Marketing to Children,” it states, “Advertising directed at children is estimated at over $15 billion annually…” In fact an average youth is exposed to an estimated 5,000 ads annually. This shows that advertisers know that it is easier to convince a child to want their product rather than an adult, and this is why they target children and teens. Also in the article, “$211 Billion and So Much to Buy American Youths, the New Big Spenders,” it talks about how much time youths spend on the internet. 76% of 8-9 year olds spend more than one hour on the internet per day and 91% of 16-17 year olds spend more than one hour on the internet each day. Since the average amount of ads seen per day is 500 ads, in just one hour there are about 20 ads seen by children. This comes down to that the more ads that youths see, the higher the risk of all the problems ads

cause.
Advertising may seem completely harmless, but advertisers know what they are doing and it seems to be working. Advertisers are pushing way past the limit of danger. Fast food advertisements cause things like health risks, while other advertisements are taking advantage of children and teens. Don’t underestimate the power of advertisements.