Essay about Effects of Advertising on School Children

Submitted By Alexis-Mize
Words: 953
Pages: 4
Open Document
Time for a change
Many Schools often sell add space as a way to make money and contract with companies such as Coke or Pepsi sell their products in exchange for a share profit. I believe this has a negative effect on school children of all ages. As soon as kids get home they watch television until time for them to go to sleep. So that means that children spend most of there night watching unhealthy food advertisements on television now even worse is that they are bringing the advertisement to schools, which is were kids spend majority of their day. Many of the advertisements promote unhealthy foods and mainly sugary sodas that may taste good but aren’t necessarily the best for you. I think that adverting unhealthy food can cause bad eating habits, obesity, and unnecessary wants.
One of the most common influences on young children’s bad eating habits is everyday food advertisement. The food industry spends more than $1.6 billion per year in child- and teen-targeted marketing of their products. The average child in the United States views 13 food ads on television each day, and food advertising represents approximately 30% of all paid television advertising viewed by children. Nearly all foods featured in advertising targeted toward young people have high levels of calories, total fat, saturated fat, sugar, or sodium. They are unhealthy, calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods, or “junk” foods and often lead to many bad eating habits (Hibbs 1) The main foods that are in the spotlight of advertising include Candy, soft drink, and sweetened cereals, and the thought of it being advertised but also at school is atrocious.
Secondly, the advertisements cause a main issue of society, which is childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is a medical condition that affects children all over the world, but is more common in the United States. “In the United States, one third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese, yet food and beverage companies continue to target them with advertising for products that contribute to this obesity crisis.” (Harris 1) Every time young kids go to school although they may not notice but the small commercialization through out the school is constantly trying to persuade them to try the newest sugary soda or interesting candy bar. “Public health experts conclude that this epidemic of childhood obesity and poor diet cannot be resolved without dramatic changes in the obesogenic food environment that surrounds young people and to which food advertising is a major contributor.” (Harris 1) Advertisements have huge impact young children’s diet and health, including increased consumption of snack foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and fast food, which means higher body mass indexes. (Paraphrase of Protecting Young People From Junk Food Advertising: Implications of Psychological Research for First Amendment Law)
Lastly, I believe that unhealthy food advertisements cause unnecessary wants. Most kids will go to school and see advertisements made by McDonald’s and see brand new toys in a happy meal, which will make children want to get an unhealthy meal just because of the toy. Sometimes kids will not even eat the food but just take the toy, which is definitely, and unnecessary want. In the older days they used to show advertisements of toys in sugary cereal boxes to persuade the children to beg there parents for the box of cereal with a toy in it next time at the grocery store. “ One study found that cereal makers spend more than $150 million per year in commercials aired during children's shows. The highest-sugar cereals are the most profitable ones on the market. Overall, according to the study, "children's" cereals have more sugar, calories,
Show More

Related Documents: Essay about Effects of Advertising on School Children

Essay on Negative Impact of Advertising to Children

The Negative Impact of Advertising to Children As citizens in the modern world, we are used to being bombarded with over 3,000 advertisements over the course of our day (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2006). Advertisements are so common that we often do not realize we are viewing them. Originally, an advertisement was a way to reach the world. In the early days of television, the programming had to be entertaining for many demographics, because there were only a few channels that targeted a mass…

Words 3933 - Pages 16

Consumerism In American Children In The 21st Century

Correspondingly, the current culture in America is obsessed with the consumption of goods. Children will imitate the practices influenced by the society in which they are exposed. American children in the 21st century are being indoctrinated into consumerism through the reckless spending of their parents and guardians, a materialistic culture, and advertised laden entertainment. To begin, parents and guardians are teaching children that success and happiness come from the pursuit of material possessions while…

Words 1767 - Pages 8

Essay Hot_topic_in_marketing(targeting or advertising to children)

business. Children became the target of advertising that concerned by the academic world since the 1970s. McNeal (1969) and consumer advocates determined that children was a market as well as consumer (Macklin, 1998). From then on, a dramatic growth on children targeting advertising was experienced in this period. An interesting data was estimated by McNeal that every year over $2 billion spent by children. During 1997, $24 billion were purchased by under 14-year-old children. Meanwhile, children simulated…

Words 2005 - Pages 9

Advertisers Target Children

Children today are being exposed to advertising every day from TV commercials, to billboards, to magazines. Children today are being consumed and slightly overwhelmed with advertising as well.There are problems related to children being exposed to so much advertising. Advertising companies put a lot of money and such into these different advertisings. For example, as stated in “The Tricky Business in Advertising to Children” by Bruce Watson, the advertising companies in the U.S. alone spend an average…

Words 493 - Pages 2

Underage Drinking Research Paper

Providing after-school…

Words 737 - Pages 3

Cigarettes Advertising Should Be Banned In The United States

advertisement should be banned Although parents, schools, and the federal government are trying to get children and teenagers to “just say no” to drugs, a significant worth of cigarette, alcohol, and prescription drug advertising is effectively working to get them to “just say yes” to smoking, drinking, and other drugs. In addition, television programs and movies contain appreciable amounts of programs that include substance use. Unlike traditional advertising, media depictions of legal drugs are generally…

Words 3336 - Pages 14

Obesity and Long Term Effects Essay

Advertising to Children: An Unethical Act In today’s society, parenting has become more challenging than ever. Parenting today is a lot different from parenting a couple of decades ago. Our society is constantly evolving causing various changes in the dynamics between parent and child. With today’s technologies children are subjects to great amounts of negative exposure that parents have a difficult time controlling. One of the most controversial aspects to that exposure is advertising. Parents…

Words 1858 - Pages 8

Econ Paper

industry sees children as a future as well as current market and hence brand loyalty at a young age helps in the quest of continued sales later. $15-17 billion is spent by companies advertising to children in the US. Over $4 billion was spent in 2009 by the fast food industry alone. Children are naïve about advertising and are easily controlled and exploited by the marketers to want and demand their products. A research done by the American psychology association showed that children under the age…

Words 2080 - Pages 9

Trainer: Obesity and fast Food Essay

relationship between obesity in children and adults and fast-food restaurants thus far has been limited. Much of the hypotheses made in regard to the effect that consumption of fast food has on the overall body mass index (BMI) is what you would expect – that one’s BMI increases with consumption of fast food items due to high calorie intake. In addition to nutritional info, there are various other factors that studies examine in order to better understand the choices and effects. These factors include but…

Words 3757 - Pages 16

Idris A Essay

AN OBESE NATION 7th period Senior Research Paper Berkmar high school Idris Abduljabbar 3/17/15 Fitness is not what it used to be. When children come home from school and just watch TV., eat junk food and sleep, something is seriously wrong with our generation. According to a health organization article by David Hirsch, 1/5 of the children in the U.S. are over-weighed. America is one of the most Obese countries and with youth following these heavy footsteps, The Obesity percent will triple in the…

Words 950 - Pages 4