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April 7, 2005
Prairie Fare: TV, Food and Kids: What’s the Scoop?
As I was preparing for a presentation on kids and food advertising, I looked around my own house for some examples. I didn’t have to look very far. Since I’m a food and nutrition specialist, I often receive food-related items as gifts, as do my children. In my search, I found several children’s books about counting, which happened to use candy as the items to count. I found my kids’ softball shirts with large soda pop emblems on the back. I found a couple of dolls that appear on food packages. I also keep a stockpile of food packages at work as examples for workshops. I found several boxes of cereal, snacks and crackers featuring cartoon characters and free toys with the food company logo. Kids are targeted more and more these days with advertisements of all kinds. U.S. kids view an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 television commercials each year, or about 360,000 by the time they finish high school. Of these ads, half are for food. The foods are rarely the type nutrition specialists promote. In 1999, $7.3 billion was spent on food advertisements, while the total nutrition education budget from the federal government was $333 million. In other words, 22 times more was spent on advertising than education. Kids are targeted with food advertising for several reasons. For one thing, they have money to spend, and perhaps more importantly, they have great influence on the buying habits of other people, particularly their parents. TV commercials are common, of course, but kids are reached with food ads by many methods. Product placement in movies is common. You didn’t think that soda pop or candy appeared in a key scene accidentally, did you? Product placement costs money, but it also reminds viewers of brand names. Many kids’ books, games, dolls and a wide variety of toys feature famous food brands. Specialized stores have popped up, as have Web sites where kids can “interact” in cyberspace with a variety of food products. Kids clubs offering a free birthday meal and card are common, too. Toddlers increasingly are being targeted with advertisements because they start influencing buying at the grocery store when they are about 2 years old. “I want that” and similar requests often work quite well with parents. In fact, “pester power,” as it’s known in the marketing field, works half the time when food is requested. Pestering works best for soft drinks, cookies, candy and sweetened cereal. All these advertisements influence buying behavior, preferences and nutrition, too. Families who watch lots of TV tend to consume more salty snacks, soda pop and other sweetened beverages, more caffeine and less fruits and vegetables. As I was thinking of the “cute” counting books in my toddler’s room, I thought about the power of marketing and the idea that brand loyalty may be taking root. My daughter hasn’t learned to talk yet, but she certainly can reach, point and yell when she sees something she recognizes, likes and wants immediately. For now, I’ll try to follow the guidance of child development specialists with my children. Limit TV, video games and other “screens” to two hours per day. Turn the TV off during meals. Discuss commercials and their purpose as children grow. Set a good example, and consider a TV-free day every week. Here’s a quick and easy snack that would go well with 100 percent fruit juice and an evening of family games.
Source:
Julie Garden-Robinson, (701) 231-7187, jgardenr@ndsuext.nodak.edu |
Market Advisor: |
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North Dakota State University |
