Sorry I have not been blogging as much as I would like to! I have been so busy with my program and I have had problems with Blogger for the past few days. I will be out of blogging touch for the next few days as I travel back to the United States for a couple of weeks before I come back to Buenos Aires.
In the meantime, chew on this one a bit...some producers of junk food are voluntarily deciding to limit their advertising to children under the age of 12. It makes me think about all of the regulation on cigarette advertisers in the United States. In the US, you cannot advertise within a certain range of schools, you cannot use cartoon characters to advertise (so long Joe Camel) and you have not been able to advertise for the longest time on television. Is this the future looming for the junk food industry in the United States?
Get a feel for this issue by reading the following article from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/business/18food.html?em&ex=1184990400&en=2a5ab37cdc2e31e1&ei=5087%0A
What do you think...should the government regulate the producers of junk food? Its bad for us, just like cigarettes and alcohol are and the government severely limits their advertising.
I look forward to your responses!
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7 comments:
Well I remember one of my teachers once told me that advertisement influences us in a way greater than we would ever imagine. For example, an energy booster drink is advertised to be able to help u win a race or raise yr energy. However, the fact is it does not help in that way but the advertisement has definitely influenced one's mind into believing that. Advertisement contains exaggeration and aspects which are unhealthy to people's (especially children) mind. Therefore, i think advertisement is an unfair way to promote one's product. Children are too young to decide which food is good for them. They get attracted to junk food advertised on the cartoon channels and demand for it. Junk food is extremely bad for us,and most of us are aware of it, but I believe many of us still consume it. (Including me >.< Can't help it!=.=) Junk food is undeniably yummy(and addictive) but we should push away that point and look forward to a healthier society. In order to guide the community to the right path of diet, advertisement has got to be stopped.
In Malaysia, there is NOT AT ALL advertisement that encourages smoking. All there is everywhere is anti-smoking campaigns (on the radio,tv,banners,bill boards) which disclose the disadvantages of smoking. If junk food companies refuse to either adjust the nutrition level of their product or stop their advertisements, campaigns like this should really be carry out, for the sake of a healthier community.
Ugh...I'm using my grandparents’ computer to post this and they have a modem, It's so frustrating!
My opinion though is that junk food is completely different than alcohol and cigarettes. Junk food does not contain any addictive properties other than those caused by forming a habit around eating. The average person could have all their junk food taken away and replaced with a healthy balanced diet and I believe that there would be no withdrawals and no cravings other than the occasional desire but nothing physically or mentally altering. Now products with high caffeine are different if you habitually take doses of caffeine from energy drinks or coke you may in fact suffer withdrawal when no longer getting the caffeine. For example, I knew of a woman in England who was taken to a hospital after not having a coke for a couple of days because prior to then it was the only thing she ever drank. Also It's unlike alcohol because if you go and have a big mac you're not going to be more likely to crash your car while driving or pass out from having too many.
This doesn’t mean I think there advertising shouldn’t be limited but only that junk food should be thought of and treated as something completely different. Children are susceptible to advertising they see on T.V. but I don’t believe the average adult sees a hamburger on T.V. and thinks forget about my diet that commercial said junk food tastes great so I’m going to believe them. So I do think that children’s exposure to these ads will be limited but I also believe it’s going to stop there.
Very interesting topic..i wouldn't have thought that the government would start putting limits to the advertising of junk food! and actually, i didnt know that cereal such as trix and fruit loops which was mentioned in the article was considered junk..well anyways, i agree with michael that junk food is very different from cigarettes and alcohol because of its nature..it's not addictive, and is not half as hazardous to one's health. Eating junk food is more like...a choice (while quitting cigs and alcohol might bring about serious withdrawal consequences on the individual). One thing i learned this vacation watching a friend attempt to go on a diet (hahaha :P) is that quitting junk food depends more on one's mind's strength to be able to fight off the temptation.
Also, I don't think that this reducing of the number of commercials on TV targetted to children under the age of 12 is going to have much of an effect. First of all, the consuming of junk food at that young age does not really depend on the individual but on the parents. At least when i was little I had to ask my parents to buy me things that i wanted (first of all because i didnt have enough money) and if they didnt' approve of it they woudlnt buy it..Also, it's the parents that have control of HOW MUCH junk food the child eats. They are the ones who have the power to set limits, not TV. If more and more children are growing obese and having health problems I don't think the source of the problem is necessarily in the advertising of the product but rather in the parents who care less and less about the child's healthy diet. As Jamie said, children are too young to decide which food is good for them and demand bad food. But that's as far as the power of advertising goes, it just influences and convinces the mind, if the parents dont allow it (we are takling about kids under the age of 12!) they cant have it, at least not in huuuge harmful amounts!
Wow, I was amazed at the steps large companies are finally taking to deal with child obesity. It is SUCH a problem in the states, and was constantly on the TV while I was there, let alone, I saw it! Advertising was overpowering parents' better judgement, so it's a relief that people are starting to do something about it.
I love the fact that gatorade will start promoting exercise without showing the product. I never would have imagined a company advertising for alternative purposes. And the fact that the Capt'n Crunch cartoon won't be used for TV advertisements is also a huge step, just like the Camel cartoon was for the smoking campaign.
Although I think smoking and alcohol are totally different situations than child obesity, the extent and destruction caused by the immense amount of advertisement is more or less equal. Extreme measures need to be taken or else the opposite of the "baby boomers" period will take place. Instead, our generation will all die young because of health issues and obesity!
On a more economic standpoint... I like how companies must either limit their advertisement or else improve health standard. If companies use their advertisement money to improve the health of their product, in the long run, it's a win-win situation. They can promote a "healthier product" to regain sales once advertising has declined. If they chose to minimize advertisements instead of improving the health standards, children will become less aware of the product and chose the more advertised, healthier alternative.
Although many of the companies agree to follow these health improvements, I'm afraid there's more to it than the well being of little kids.
What do you guys think???
Hey everyone---
Interesting article. I agree with that junk food is different than alcohol or drugs-- but NOT by much.
Check this out:
"Eating hamburgers, chips and fat-loaded junk foods could be addictive, scientists said yesterday.
They think that high-calorie fried foods could trigger hormonal changes that make it difficult to control eating.
Suggesting that putting on weight may involve more than simply a loss of self-control, the findings could help explain soaring obesity rates and the phenomenal success of fast-food outlets.
The studies indicate that a single fast-food meal could contain a dose of fat and carbohydrate large enough to cause changes in brain structure usually associated with addiction to drugs.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F01%2F30%2Fwfood30.xml"
There were lots of articles along the same lines...If adults can't resist the temptation of sugary/salty junk food, how can children? These companies are taking a mature stance, and I hope other companies will follow suit.
For years, companies have been manipulating children, from tastebuds to "the nagging factor", like we saw in the IB video last year.
Although they might lose part of their market, companies like Kellgos may start catering to a new market of healthier eaters. Children usually stay true to a certain cereal for most of their childhood-- I.e. my family always had Cheerios and Life cereal. If companies can advertise that they have healthier versions of their popular cereals, they may convince parents to consistently buy the cereal-- not just as a treat.
I hope that makes sense! This is a good start, but companies should do more in the future. Or the US government should close loopholes, as mentioned in the article.
I have an interesting fact I read a while ago in a readers digest i think. Anyway it said that a kid who had just seen a food commercial was something like 400% more likely to eat something afterward than had it been a toy commercial. I felt this was interesting and highly relevant, so i decided to share it.
Of course, advertisement always influences our consumer habits. This can range from commercials about life insurance to the newest clothes of a well known brand. However, I think that even though it would not be a bad idea to maybe limit the amount of commercials for fast food shown, ultimately every person has to make the choice themselves. So many people are already accustomed to eating fast food at least once a week, that a change in commercials will probably not change that. Junk food is very unhealthy and is not soemthing which should be endorsed (especially not in decieving commercials which do not show any information about healthy nutrition), but it's still up to the consumer whether they want to go eat at McDonald's or not.
However, junk food is definetely not as bad as cigarettes or alcohol, and should probably not be treated in the same way. But I still believe that it defienetly is not something to be proudly endorsed, at leats not without information about proper nutrition and health.
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