Marketing Unhealthy Food to Children

Margo G. Wootan, D.Sc.

Center for Science in the Public Interest 

A healthy diet is crucial to preventing obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Those chronic diseases/conditions often take decades to develop and have their roots in childhood, when disease processes begin and eating habits are formed. Yet few children are eating in accordance with dietary guidelines, and the rates of childhood obesity and diabetes are rising rapidly.  Parents bear most of the responsibility for feeding their children well.  However, society should support parent’s efforts by protecting children from practices that can harm their health.

Children’s food choices are affected by many factors. One of the most important is that food companies have developed an enormous number of high-calorie foods and then relentlessly bombard children with messages to eat them.  Food marketing aimed at children has increased dramatically over the last two decades.  It now reaches children almost everywhere they are throughout the day – through television, magazines, websites, product placement in movies, new products, product packaging, in-store displays, books, clothing and even in school, as well as ubiquitous fast-food restaurants and vending machines.

Food manufacturers and chain restaurants use aggressive and sophisticated marketing techniques to attract children’s attention, manipulate their food choices, and prompt them to pester their parents to purchase products.  Harry Potter, SpongeBob Squarepants, Winnie the Pooh, Elmo, games, contests, prizes and sports stars are enlisted to entice children to request low-nutrition foods. 

Companies use advertising and other marketing techniques to sell more products and increase profits.  While they are not intentionally trying to undermine children’s health, there is no disputing that the goal of food marketing aimed at children is to influence their food choices.  Many children, especially young children, lack the cognitive skills and maturity to understand advertising, or to understand that advertisers are trying to sell them something or may exaggerate claims.  Studies demonstrate that advertising influences children’s food preferences and choices and what they pester their parents to purchase.  Persistent nagging of parents and the need for parents to repeatedly say “no” can strain the parent-child relationship.  Conflicts arise because the foods that are most heavily marketed to children are low-nutrition foods of which parents would like their children to eat less.  Marketers count on children wearing their parents down and on parents giving in and purchasing low-nutrition foods for their children.

Public policy has been used to protect children from products or behaviors that could harm them, even when such policies might negatively affect businesses.  Tobacco advertising is banned from television and radio, some steps have been taken to restrict other marketing for cigarettes to venues where children are less likely to be exposed, and the sale of alcohol to people under 21 is illegal.

Since as far back as 1952, television broadcasters, in their Television Code, recognized that “television broadcasters should exercise the utmost care and discrimination with regard to advertising material, including content, placement and presentation, near or adjacent to programs designed for children.”  That tradition is supposed to be continued through the industry-sponsored Children’s Advertising Review Unit’s (CARU) self-regulatory system.  However, the current regulatory system is inadequate and many food companies and marketers are not advertising and marketing products to children responsibly.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were efforts (which ultimately failed) to reduce junk-food advertising aimed at children. Given the rising obesity and diabetes rates and children’s poor eating habits, it is time to revisit current practices and strengthen laws and regulations to better protect children’s health and support parents’ efforts to feed their children healthy diets.

Some argue that although companies market their products directly to children, it is up to parents to decide whether to purchase products.  However, food marketing aimed at children makes a parent’s job harder and undermines parental authority.

Recommendations: Actions are needed by governments, schools, industry, parents, health professionals and others.  They include restricting the marketing to children of high-calorie, low-nutrition foods on television, in magazines, schools and other child-directed venues. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state health departments should be funded to sponsor aggressive media-based campaigns to promote healthy eating and physical activity to balance the pressures to eat low-nutrition foods.  Parents, health professionals and other community members should urge broadcasters, food companies and restaurants to voluntarily adhere to guidelines for responsible food marketing aimed at children.

Margo Wootan, DSc, (mwootan@cspinet.org) is the director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. She founded and coordinates the activities of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity, is a member of the Steering Committee and the co-chair of the Policy Subcommittee for the National 5 A Day Partnership. She has received numerous awards and is quoted regularly in the nation’s major media on subjects ranging from obesity and trans fat to public policy and child nutrition.