Obesity, Children, and today’s media
Children’s carton heroes, the simple clean pastime they want us to think, or a sinister plot to advertise fast food and other unhealthy products to children? The truth is that cartoon charters like Sponge Bob and the Disney Princesses are actually part of the media’s tricky plot to advertise and sell food to children. Think back to when you were young, back then did you have even the slightest clue that every commercial you saw was one scratch against you becoming fully media literate? It is a proven fact that “tweens” (not quite teenagers, but defiantly not children) see that most ads on the television, in fact the see, on average, more then 21 adds per day, and in one year this can add up to more then 7,600 ads. Why is this? Is it really fair to market a product to a child who cannot even comprehend the fact that them wanting this is just what media companies want? Another study showed that 50 percent of all commercials seen by children 12 and under were advertising food, and of that percentage, only 4 percent was for the healthy dairy products they need to develop strong bones, furthermore, a whapping 34 percent was pure candy and snack commercials, things that you would think our society could use less of.
What s the result of all of these facts you ask? Recent studies show that 60 percent of all over weight children were overweight because of excessive TV viewing, would it be like that if more of the commercials on TV were encouraging viewers to eat healthy foods, or engage in more physical activity? The average preschoolers is 6 percent more at risk of becoming obese for every single hour of television they watch, a preschooler, who doesn’t even know how to read yet can be at risk of becoming obese, is that not taking advantage of the young and hopeless or what?
Marian Burros. Report Links TV Ads and Childhood Obesity. December 6, 2005. New York Times. May 25, 2007
Associated Press.report TV ads contribute to child obesity.Dec 6, 2005. ms nbc. May 25
Kaiser Family Foundation. New Study Finds That Food Is the Top Product Seen Advertised by Children - Among All Children, Tweens See the Most Food Ads at More Than 20 a Day. 1996- 2007. pr news wire. May 25, 2007
Media family. Media Use And Obesity Among Children. 11/06. Media Family. May 25, 7007
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Editor,
Have your children been watching excess amounts of television lately? Are you concerned about how good this is for their health? well you should be worried, it has come to society’s attention takes a huge role on how obsess our country has become, especially when it comes to children.
How often does your child immerse themselves in cartoon shows, such as sponge bob and Teletubbies? There are plenty of facts that clearly state that excessive television viewing is directly related to obesity. One study showed that kids ranging in ages from 8-12 saw a grand total of 21 ads per day, and in just one year these amounts added up to more then 7,600 adds! Also, teenagers saw about 17 adds per day, totaling more then 6,000 in a year. What kind of adds were these you ask? Another study showed that out of 8,8,54 ads targeted at children and teens none of them advertised the healthy fruits and vegetables they need to become healthy. Instead of advertising healthy foods like dairy and fruit juices, the majority of ads, a whapping 34% of the adds were for junk food such as candy bars and hostess. Are you still so sure the television is a harmless pass time?
It isn’t all bad though, allot of different companies are trying to help in the race to finish off obesity. For example Nickelodeon is broad casting allot of new shows to help with the struggle. Another step up is that the different food companies are being forced to promote healthier products, you might notice that when you go to a local McDonalds, instead of just greasy burgers and fries they now offer apples and dip for children and salads for people who don’t order the kids meal. but these are small and insignificant attempts to undo the real problem, which is that our society has grown lazy and the mixed messages society is sending don’t exactly help. Look at ads for chocolate, you see a skinny person woofing down candy bars, and what does that makes people think? They will see this commercial and say to themselves “I can eat this and look just like that girl right there”, when obviously, that is not true.
So these are the problems I am posting, and in high hopes that something will be done about them. Society need to understand that not everything on television commercials of things that are posted on the internet aren’t completely factual, and in fact more often then not they are scams to get you to purchase a product, or attain an idea that also isn’t usually correct. Aside from educating the people I also strongly feel that society needs to take a stand against the media, perhaps when they see that we aren’t mindless statistics they will under stand the problem at hand.
Sincerely,
Emily
Ben
Lewis
Comments (1)
Ms Hogue said
at 6:33 pm on May 31, 2007
Hi,
You need a title, to cite your sources, and your letter, of course.
ms hogue
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