Food Marketing and Children’s Health - An Emerging Concern

What Is Food Marketing?

Food marketing is the advertising of certain food products. To increase the sales of their food products and certain beverages, the brands use various advertising strategies. This process of promoting the face value of any food product to boost its sales is known as food marketing. The landscape of the food marketing industry is going upscale and ever-evolving. Most of the companies in the food industry are making money by providing tasty food items at competitive discount prices. The influence of such irresponsible food advertising is a matter of concern as it has contributed a lot of refined sugars, excessive sodium, and bad cholesterol to the dietary patterns of children, as well as adults. Food marketing can be done in multiple ways, including

• Brand building.

• Celebrity backing.

• Contests.

• Discount coupons.

• Promotions on social media platforms.

• Television commercials.

• Advertisements on the radio.

• Commercials in theaters in movie intervals.

• Sponsored posts on digital media.

• Product use in movies and television serials.

Food marketing is also done these days based on the web browsing history, shopping history, and personal information of an individual. These days, targeted commercials are delivered after tracking a person’s online internet activities.

How Does Food Marketing Affect Children?

The food marketing industry is quite compelling and persuasive. Children get quickly convinced by the persuasive messages and advertisements that they come across, as their power of thinking and reasoning is very limited. The food industry spends a very large amount of more than two billion dollars every year on the marketing of food products to children. What is surprising is that the majority of these items include junk, processed, refined, and unhealthy foods.

The kids are not able to recognize the selling and advertising intent of these commercials or advertisements and fall easy prey to them. They think that these advertisements are genuine. They consider themselves up-to-date when they see these commercials related to food items, thinking that all these food items will be available in the shops. Hence, one can assume that these marketing agencies falsely exploit children’s cognitive thoughts and affect their health adversely. It is rather unfair. The food marketing industry has a huge impact on children, including their:

• Food choices.

• Dietary meals.

• Willingness to eat.

• Food purchase request.

• Child’s health.

1. Food Choices - Children become more inclined towards unhealthy junk food as these marketing agencies mostly sell their food items on the basis of taste and coupon codes. The children mostly love to eat pizzas, burgers, chocolates, chips, finger fries, desserts, artificial sweetening drinks, and soda. So, there has been a shift in the food choices made by children due to the overwhelming and compelling influence of the food marketing industry.

2. Dietary Meals - Kids' diets these days include more sugars and fats instead of healthy fruits, green vegetables, and whole grain cereals. Because of the readily and conveniently available options of processed and packaged foods, children are more inclined towards unhealthy eating options available online or even in shops.

3. Willingness to Eat - The kids will show a natural liking for packaged and sweet foods instead of a bowl full of fresh fruits and vegetables. They express more willingness to eat unhealthy food options.

4. Food Purchase Request - It has been observed that the kids often force their parents to purchase such products either from the shop or online after seeing commercials that show the food products.

5. Child’s Health - This is a very serious health concern as after consuming such unhealthy food items, the health of a child is compromised to a great extent. Childhood obesity, juvenile diabetes, eating disorders, and psychological issues are some of the health issues that kids may develop due to the impact of inadvertent food marketing techniques.

What Is the Impact of Food Marketing on a Child’s Health?

The impact of unhealthy food marketers on a child’s health is humongous. The children may become exposed or susceptible to a number of chronic diseases such as excess weight gain, childhood obesity, juvenile diabetes, malnutrition, and mental health issues. Apart from this, the child may also suffer from chronic health diseases like heart problems, eating disorders, fatty liver, cancer, brain stroke, and even arthritis. Even the physical and mental growth of the child is also compromised to a great extent.

Children eating unhealthy foods are often exposed to childhood obesity issues. Childhood obesity is gradually becoming a global concern. With the development of obesity in children, there are reports of their developing a low self-esteem in such children. They may even suffer from body shaming issues, depression, and certain eating disorders. Obesity itself is a gateway to a number of other long-term health diseases. Mentally stressed children may then try other crash diets for weight loss, which are dangerous for their health. Similarly, in earlier times, cases of prediabetes or juvenile diabetes were rare. But now, the increasing number of such cases among the youth indicates the harmful impact of unhealthy eating. Hence, the impact of food marketing on children is very dangerous, and it may affect their health in a worse manner.

What Actions Can Be Taken to Protect Children From the Harmful Impact of Food Marketing?

1. Policies should be set to markedly reduce the influence of unhealthy food items that are especially high in salt, sugar, and trans-fat on children.

2. Children gathering in public places should not be exposed to these unhealthy food practices.

3. Schools, preschools, orphanages, kids' play areas, and recreational centers for kids should avoid introducing the unhealthy foods that are marketed to children.

4. Efforts need to be made to reduce children's exposure to bad food marketing by reducing their screen time.

5. Parents should ensure that the children watch television or online commercials only in their presence.

6. Parents should teach their children about maintaining their online privacy.

7. Parents can even stock up their kitchen with healthy snacks.

8. Parents as well as the school administration should teach children about the importance of a healthy and well-balanced diet.

9. The placement of branded unhealthy food products in the children’s favorite cartoon shows should be restricted, or children should be instructed about the ill effects of fast food on their oral and overall medical health in schools as well as at home.

Conclusion

Food marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry that can play a significant role in shaping the future of the world. It is the need of the hour that they should start behaving responsibly as they have a strong impact on children’s health. The cheap tactics employed by them to seek the attention of children to promote their sales should be prohibited in order to protect the child’s right to authentic information. The government, World Health Organization, and UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) should work closely to monitor the actions of these unhealthy food marketers and should set strict guidelines regarding the marketing of unhealthy junk food items. Also, parents, caretakers, and the school administration should also teach the children about the harmful effects of unhealthy food snacking and the reality of these false advertisements.