Have you ever considered that binge-watching your favourite television show could be harmful to your health? Children nowadays spend an average of 53 hours per week in front of a screen, which has a significant impact on their health and well-being. Childhood obesity has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most important public health issues of the twenty-first century.
Over time, eating patterns have evolved dramatically and quickly. Consumers today place such a high value on convenience that they will spend more than half of their food budget on meals that need little or no preparation. They eat out frequently, bring home ready-to-eat meals, or order food to be delivered.
When asked how they make food decisions, many people answer flavour is the most important aspect. Flavour, scent, look, and texture all influence what you eat for meals and snacks on a daily basis. Food choices, on the other hand, represent a complicated network of social, environmental, and economic variables that parents and children may not be aware of. Food preferences are formed as a result of our family, the location or country in which we live, the cost of food, and, most importantly, how food is promoted or advertised to us.
Because advertising is so prevalent in our daily lives, they have a significant influence on society and people’s actions. The impact might be both beneficial and bad.
The visuals we view on a daily basis and the messages we receive through various media instruments influence our eating choices Marketers utilise a variety of techniques to engage children with their messages, including popular cartoon characters and gift incentives, to improve kid pester power. Companies do a wonderful job in selling their products in the most entertaining and memorable ways.
Sugary cereals, soda, snacks, and fast meals are all marketed for billions of dollars nowadays. It extends beyond television commercials to include movie tie-ins, product placement, and celebrity endorsements. Popular fast-food brands now frequently feature cartoon characters and even have their own websites, apps, social media profiles, and interactive games.
The advertising slogans are based on an emotional/psychological appeal rather than nutrition — pleasure gives you energy, great flavour. Younger children are sometimes unable to distinguish between regular programming and advertisement messages, and as a result, they frequently pay more attention to the latter due to their fast, attention-getting speed. They also don’t realise that advertising’s goal isn’t necessarily to promote a good product, but rather to persuade consumers to buy a product that has proven tough to sell.
Dietary and beverage marketing has a significant impact on children’s food preferences and buying needs. 6-8 Exposure to unhealthy foods through television advertising has been linked to increased preferences for promoted items. Because the bulk of children’s food preferences originate during early childhood, they are at risk of developing life-long preferences for foods heavy in calories, fat, and added sugars, placing them at risk for obesity as a result of television food marketing practises.
Children frequently seek foods they remember from the media, particularly television advertising. It has been determined that food ads encourage children to make food purchase requests to their parents, influence children’s product and brand preferences, and influence consuming behaviour.
Subtle effects of advertising:
- Promotion of pictures that aren’t necessarily true, but are presented in ways that appear to be such. People believe that purchasing product “A” would make them happier, younger, and more attractive—they must believe this since advertising “prove” it.
- Repetition of messaging that emphasise slight variations between products, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, might impact unconscious judgements about which product becomes a preferred one.
- Even if customers despise some irritating commercials, the persistent repetition of messaging might have an impact on their purchasing decisions.
The number of overweight or obese children and adults in the population has increased in recent years, as has the number of lifestyle-related deaths. Obese children are more likely to grow up to be obese adults, who are at risk for a variety of chronic noncommunicable diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Because chronic diseases cost national economies billions of dollars in health care, it is clearly beneficial for people and society as a whole to create and implement policies that prevent or limit their spread. Despite some efforts to mitigate this effect by eliminating bad food advertisements and occasionally replacing them with healthy food advertisements, the impact of the healthy food advertisements has been minimal.
To summarise, you won’t be able to entirely escape these fast-food commercials. You can mitigate it to some extent by watching commercial-free television, such as Netflix. Parents must also teach their children that not everything they see on television is accurate. Companies must market their products, which is why they make certain foods appealing or even fabricate them at times. Companies must sell their products, which is why they make certain foods appealing or even fake it at times to get customers in.
BY KHUSHI GUPTA
