Fast Food Adverts Targeting Children

Fast Food Adverts Targeting Children
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Introduction
Balanced diets and healthy feeding habits are crucial for the children and the adolescents. This is one of the factors that contribute to proper growth and development. These aspects can also be tracked into their adulthood and are the reason that some of the adults in the current time developed chronic diseases and long-term conditions. Majority of the reports that have been released in America with regard to the recent dietary habits, show that the American children and adolescents have very poor feeding habits that do not meet the dietary goals of the country. The current trends indicate that the children and the adolescents are eating a lot more foods away from home and majority of these foods include soft drinks and snacks. It has also been established that children and adolescents are obtaining more than 50% of their calories from the fatty foods and sugars that have been added to the drinks (Bernhardt, Wilking, Adachi-Mejia, Bergamini, Marijnissen& Sargent, 2013).
The last several decades has seen the rise of the children with obesity rise in the general population of America, which is now one of the major public health concerns. At the moment more than 155 of the population of the youths in the country is dealing with overweight issues. Compared to the 80s, the prevalence in children to get obese has increased two folds while that of the adolescents has raised three folds. Some of the complications that have also increased with the rise of the obesity in the country are cardiovascular disease related to the overweight problem (Calvert, 2008). These conditions include hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. In addition diabetes mellitus types 2 have also beenon the rise especially in the youths, something that was not common in the 80s.These are just a tip of the iceberg as most of the implications re likely to be felt in the future. The health and productivity of America is at stake (HYPERLINK "/pubmed/?term=Story%20M%5Bauth%5D"Story&HYPERLINK "/pubmed/?term=French%20S%5Bauth%5D"French, 2004).
Previous attempts have been made to combat issues related to obesity but they were directed in the wrong direction. A group of like-minded persons felt that they parents of the obese children should be charged with the felony of neglecting their duty to take care of the children and what they eat. Clearly this was an escapade to divert the attention from the actual problem. The force behind the deteriorating health condition of the youths in America is the fast food industry. With the immense growth of the internet, the young generation is constantly hooked onto the platform (Bernhardt, Wilking, Adachi-Mejia, Bergamini, Marijnissen& Sargent, 2013). The environments around the youth are saturated with loads of media content, from the televisions sets in their rooms, computers, to the adverts on the streets, their school environment to the mobile devices that they carry with them. The fast food industries have taken centre stage of the platforms and are constantly bombarding the young generation with the adverts that hype their products. This article tries to unravel the means and channels that are commonly used by the fast food companies to sell their products to the children and the impact these have had on the youth within the United States of America.
Food Adverts
At the centre of marketing the food supply in the United States is the aspect of advertising. However, there are other forms of marketing and adverts are one of the many ways that most companies employ in order to reach out to the target customers. At the moment the fast food industry comes second after the motor vehicle industry with respect to the advertising, however it comes out on top with respect to the industries that book the most spots on the advertising media platforms such as the television, newspapers and the magazines among others (HYPERLINK "/pubmed/?term=Story%20M%5Bauth%5D"Story&HYPERLINK "/pubmed/?term=French%20S%5Bauth%5D"French, 2004). This is due to the fact that food takes more than 12% of the expenditure for majority of the consumers, which creates very high competition. The companies also have to make sure that they maintain their customers as these are repeat products, where customers can easily shift attention and by extension the food industry is highly branded. As such, billions of dollars go into the marketing aspects due to the adverts and the specialised research that has to be conducted every so often, to inform the decisions on the various products and the consumer behaviour which can easily change overnight.
Marketing to the Children/ Marketing Approaches
Brand Loyalty
The immense intent by the fast food companies to target the youth is an indication that most of the companies are out to build on the brand awareness. It is common to find that most of the consumers even at the adult level will first prefer a certain brand before they develop the habit of buying the products (Calvert, 2008). The fast food companies have greatly invested in the idea of creating a positive experience for the children when they interact with the brand and at the same time influence the parents. From the time that the children are toddler, the marketers have mastered the art of bom...