Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Fast food ads target toddlers?

When Susan Connor noticed her 3 year old was humming the McDonald's jingle, the research manager for Cleveland's Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital decided to conduct a study. The study suggests that fast food companies are dominating television programming for toddlers. The study is published in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics.

from CBC:

The study found that messages for high-fat, high-sugar foods abounded on the child-targeted Nickelodeon specialty channel, the Disney Channel and on certain child-focused shows such as Sesame Street on the Public Broadcasting Service.

Both Disney and PBS, which promote their policy of ad-free programming, show corporate sponsor messages. Connor's study found that high-fat foods account for 82 per cent of sponsor messages on PBS preschool programming and 36 per cent on Disney's shows for toddlers.

"The majority of child-oriented food advertisements viewed seemed to take a branding approach, focusing on creating lifelong customers rather than generating immediate sales," the study noted. Connor also suggested that the advertisements adopted similar approaches, linking food with fun and happiness.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

why do that it will only make the little children cry in your restrount (i know that its spelled wrong) and then everyone will leave because of the all the noise and they most likely won't come back if there is enough noise to hear from miles away

Hoodlum said...

McDonald's does this, but then claims zero responsiblity for the childhood obesity epidemic.

Anonymous said...

If you don't like the commercials turn off the tv. If the kids were more active burning more calories they could eat the food and not become obese!

Anonymous said...

no matter to what extent, anyone involved in making their livelihood within the advertising industry should be put right up against the wall... blindfolds and cigarettes optional.
Their final meal, a happy one.
ready, aim, fire up the grill.

Anonymous said...

We as parents expect that when our kids watch Sesame Street, they won't see ads like the ones from McDonald's. I know that PBS and McDonald's would say that they are not actually showing comercials, that they are just saying that McDonald's and other companies like Cuck E. Cheese are just helping to support the PBS Kids shows. I wish PBS was like it was when I was a kid in the 80's and 90's, when it was truly ad free during its childrens' programing.

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