English Literature

In the past years, the rise in obesity and overweight in children has been on the rise. The rise has reached an alarming proportion. Therefore, immediate action needs to be taken to prevent farther prevalence. A research conducted in Australia, New South Wales, on children between the kindergarten classes to the age of ten indicates that 17 of all children in both sexes are obese. There are many obese boys as compared to the girls. The proportion of girls that are obese is 6 while that of boys is 8.

Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Agriculture Organization has formed a collaboration that has come up with a report that recognizes food marketing to children that childrens food preferences is influenced at the category and brand level, habits in food consumption, behaviors in purchasing and requests in purchasing.

Most of the food adverts are aired on the television. Consequently, most of the children engage in watching television as their main favorite electronic media. The reason as to why the corporate members use this means of airing their adverts is due to the fact that children need only to watch the television and understand the kind of food being advertised. Since many of them find no time to read published journals, the printed media have received low attention and therefore they are not much used in advertising foods. In the USA for example, only 16 of the total expenditure aimed at advertising food through magazines is used.

The study conducted in Australia indicates that food references are very popular within childrens magazines. Although there were some healthy foods that were advertised through the childrens magazines like fruits and fruit related products, the majority of the foods advertised were unhealthy. The research indicated that the healthy foods advertised through the childrens magazines took the proportion of 36.3 while those that were unhealthy almost doubled the latter coming up to an alarming 63.7.

Most of the adverts of unhealthy foods targeted the males and children who were between the ages of 7 to the age of 12. On the contrary, healthy foods mostly targeted the females. Additional information included in these magazines is directions towards weight loss as well as dieting.

The overall branded references claimed a greater number of the unhealthy foods that aimed at promoting a precise food trade name. The non-branded foodstuffs however aimed at advertising the healthy foods. The branded food references concentrated on promoting some of the food stuffs like snack foods, high-sugar drinks, iced confection as well as ice creams in large numbers. These adverts therefore affect the purchase behavior of the children leading them to purchase more of these unhealthy food stuffs.

Despite the rise in advertisement that aims at promoting the unhealthy foods, its commendable that many magazines advertise healthy foods in the childrens magazines. Some of these foods are mainly advertised in the recipe and the editorial sections. The problem with the advertised healthy food references is that they are non-branded and therefore they dont quite influence the purchase behavior of the childrens. Therefore, the branded products in the adverts majority of which are unhealthy undermine the healthy food references positive effects health wise.

Though the television is dominating the advertisement scene of these reference foods, the internet is fast taking the track. Quite a considerable number of adverts that promote both healthy and unhealthy foods have been posted on the internet. Such foods are being used in conjunction with various children games. By so doing, the children are influenced to purchase the unhealthy food stuffs. There is also an influence on the child behavior to abuse drugs or drink alcohol once he sees the stuffs being used in various films. This is due to the fact that they tend to think that the behavior is allowable since the celebrity in the film is doing it.

There has been a rise in controversy regarding food advertisement in the television in Australia. There has been a strict regulation regarding foods that are aimed at influencing the purchase behavior of the children. This therefore means that the various corporations involved will look for alternative methods of advertising their products. One of the most targeted media being the childrens magazines will therefore still be in the position to persuade children to purchase their products that are unhealthy.

The involved health corporations may therefore find a hard time trying to regulate the use of such adverts that are misleading. However, with persistence, there will be few adverts that are targeting children. Its the role of the government therefore to intervene in such cases since an increase in the number of children who are obese or overweight will consequently lead to the increase in the number of health risks that include diabetes and high blood pressure in the young generation. This means that the death rates will also be on the rise.

To curb farther spread in children obesity and overweight, various actions need to be taken. The corporations involved in health matters like the World Health Organization (WHO) should be on the front line in setting up strict rules regarding advertisements that aim in promoting unhealthy foods to the children. This includes adverts aired on the television as well as those that are on the children magazines.

By so doing, the childrens purchase behavior cannot be negatively affected. Consequently, this will lead to a reduction in the number of children who are overweight or are obese.