It attacks children from all sides – on the street, on TV, on the Internet. It is hard for a child to resist the temptation, seeing endless images of mouth-watering hamburgers, chips, chocolate bars and other unhealthy foods. Children beg their parents to buy them unhealthy treats or spend their pocket money on them. How to protect a child from manipulation?
As a result of aggressive advertising, childhood obesity has now reached epidemic proportions in many countries. Is it possible to protect small consumers from manipulation?
To better understand how junk food advertising affects children’s behavior and, ultimately, their health, American doctors analyzed the results of 29 studies in which a total of more than 6000 children took part.1.
Children can see ads for fast food, junk food and sweets literally everywhere: on TV, on the Internet, in computer games, in newspapers, magazines and booklets, on the streets and on the packaging of other products.
Summarizing the results of the studies, the authors concluded that children who often watch such advertisements consume significantly more calories, with children under 8 years of age most affected by advertising. They are especially prone to imitate the behavior of characters depicted in advertisements.
Children said they wanted to lick the TV screen when they were showing product ads.
Another study on this topic was conducted by doctors from the British Center for Cancer Research.2. They visited several schools and preschools, showing children commercials that featured food, and then asked schoolchildren about their impressions and personal experiences related to advertising.
Here’s what the kids said:
“Here you are eating fruit, and you see an advertisement, you will immediately throw it away, ask your mother for money and run to the store,” a 6th grade student.
“Watching an ad, you feel fun and joyful, and you want to try (the advertised product), because the guy in the ad is dancing because he tried it, and it turned out to be very tasty,” a fifth grader who watched an ad for sweets.
“I asked my mom if I could buy (the advertised product). She said no, I got angry and kept begging her, and in the end she allowed me and I went to the store,” a fifth grader.
Children said that they wanted to lick the TV screen, which shows an advertisement for some appetizing-looking product.
“The obesity epidemic in preschoolers and adolescents is a major concern. Overweight children are 5 times more likely to be obese as adults, and obesity increases the risk of cancer. For the sake of our children’s health, advertising of unhealthy food during “children’s time” should be banned or restricted,” says Dr. Alison Cox, cancer prevention specialist.
Play a few scenes with the children in which you and the child take turns being the buyer and the seller.
Young children (4 to 6 years old) are the most appreciative audience for commercials. They perceive a beautiful picture as a reality, they want to imitate its characters, to become a part of it. Advertising has a literally hypnotic effect on them. Usually the video interrupts the film at the most dramatic moment. The child watches a scene from a movie, empathizes with the characters, and suddenly happy, smiling faces and a bright picture appear on the screen – and the child’s mood changes dramatically.
How to protect children from the influence of advertising of harmful products?
American psychologist S. Adams Sullivan (S. Adams Sullivan) believes that the attitude to advertising in young children shapes the attitude of parents to it3. He offers to act out several scenes in which the parent and child will alternately act as a buyer and seller. The parent tries to “sell” the unnecessary product to the child so that the child understands that the product is bad, but the seller needs to sell it. Then the child tries to persuade the parent to “buy” something. Perhaps after that he will begin to treat advertising as a game, or maybe he will understand that advertising is just an attempt to impose someone’s opinion. The main thing is to explain that advertising should be treated selectively and that the absence of any thing does not make life worse.
1 B. Sadeghirad et al. «Influence of unhealthy food and beverage marketing on children’s dietary intake and preference: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials», Obesity Reviews, July 2016.
2 C. Aznar et al. «Ad Brake: Primary school children’s perceptions of unhealthy food advertising on TV», National Centre for Social Research and Cancer Research UK, 2016.
3 S.A. Sullivan «The Father`s Almanac» (Broadway Books, 1992).