How Food and Nutrition Advertisements Influence the Perception on Eating Habits - Essay Example

? How Food and Nutrition Advertisements Influence the Perception of Adolescent Girls on their Eating Habits and Nutritional Status Background Literature In often cases, the only source of information that people have, based on which they make decisions with their food and nutrition purchases is the advertisements that come with these food and nutrition products and services. What this means is that the more a person is vulnerable to social influence and social acceptability, the more likely it is that the person will be led into blindly following the advertisements into making purchases (Freedman et al, 2009). With this said, it is important to establish that advertisements on food and nutrition products and services do not come only from the manufacturers but could also come in the forms of recommendations from friends and relatives. It is from this perspective that adolescent girls become an important subject of discussion due to the fact that adolescent girls have been found to be easily influenced by socialization, social influences, peer pressure, and social acceptability (Koplan, Liverman and Kraak, 2005). In effect, adolescent girls are more likely to make purchases of particularly food and nutrition products not necessarily because of the personal experience or education they have with the food, cosmetic or drug but because of the influences they receive from peers to purchase. It has even been established in research that due to the physical and biological changes that these girls experience at adolescence, they become more concerned about their bodies at teen ages and thus look for every means possible to appear as they find pleasing in their own eyes (Lackey and Kaczynski, 2009). Because of some of the key variables discussed about teen girls and for that matter female adolescents on their physical and biological changes and the quest for most of them to achieve a perceived perfect body appearance, this group has often become the target group for most advertisers in the food and nutrition industry. Due to the existing delight from the girls themselves, the advertisers often portray their food, cosmetic and drugs to have the potential of making these girls achieve the perfect bodies that they require or desire for themselves. As reflected in the second research question that seeks to answer the question of ways that advertisements influence the perception of girls on food products and services, Hindin, Contento & Gussow (2004) note that food products and services advertisements do not always represent the holistic truth about what they seek to portray. Rather, they target the intuitions of their audience such that what only things that when audience hear that will draw them to making purchases are represented in advertisements. This means that the case is not always holistic or true in what the girls are told in advertisements. Where there is lack of holistic presentation of information, the advertisers have been accused of keeping key information on products that has to do with side effects and risk effects of their food, cosmetic and drugs (Luder, Melnik and DiMaio, 2008). Based on the review above, the second research question will be particularly important in answering because it will open the understanding of girls on the purpose for advertisements and the need for more holistic approach to be taken towards the making of purchases rather than basing sorely on what is presented in advertisements. Once this is done, the aim for the first research question will be achieved because girls are going to be offered more and more options and bases for taking decisions on purchases. Where the accusation is also with false advertisement, the reports have been that what advertisements present is not what the products or services can really offer. In some other cases, advertisers have resorted to over emphasis of the true potency of what products and services being advertised can do, thereby portraying perfect body images that are not really as they are in the real world. But most of these girls take the information to be realistic and thus develop wrong perceptions on certain products and services. Problem Statement Narrative What people often see and hear have very great results on the perceptions that they create about issues. The result of perception creation becomes even more daring when the people at the receptive end of the messages being heard or seen are at an early development stage of their lives, such as adolescence (Mallory, Fiser and Jackson, 2009). Meanwhile, for most companies, especially those in the competitive industries to survive, they have to engage in several marketing mix, part of which is promotion. Promotion of products and services also take place through advertisements, of which the food and nutrition industry play a key role because they are also in a competitive industry (Norazmir et al, 2012). With this noted, it can be deduced that the outcome of food and nutrition advertisement would have greater influence on the perceptions that adolescents get about food and nutrition, and the choices that they take. Often times, adolescents, especially adolescent girls have based their decisions on food and nutrition products and services on the information they hear through advertisements. Meanwhile, Patel et al (2012) argue that advertisements are not necessarily educative platforms to inform or disseminate accurate information to people on the best choices that they can make. In effect, it is important to have a research base that identifies the perception of girls on food and nutrition advertisement and seek ways to use the research to correct wrong perceptions. In the United States, there are laws and regulations that guide the advertisement of food and nutrition products and services. The intentions of these regulations have been to ensure that through advertisement, the public is given the right information about the content of the food and nutrition product or service, right information about any possible side effects, right information about intake indications, and right production related information such as the place of manufacturing, date of manufacturing, expiration date, and contact information of manufacturers (Federal Trade Commission, 1995). Once the laws are enacted, they are given to various regulatory bodies or agencies to ensure their enforcement. A typical example of such agency is the United States Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). There are also agency that act as advocacy organizations, sorely responsible for the education of the masses and general public on the need ensure that they understand what they read on labels on food, cosmetic and drug products. Regardless the works, roles and duties of the regulation and advocacy agencies and bodies, studies continue to show that a lot more people become victims of non-adherence (Harrison and Marske, 2005). For example, they have been instances cited where manufacturers refuse to give the very vivid detail needed on their labels and thus making decision making based on advertisement very difficult (Kirkwood, 2005). Lapses in existing literature such as ways of enforcing existing regulations shall be addressed in the current study. Purpose of the New Study Rightly identified above, the purpose of the new study is to undertake a pragmatic action or step that seeks to offer a professional and academic touch to the issue of perceptions created by adolescent girls through the advertisement of food and nutrition products and services. Research Questions 1. What is adolescent girls’ recourse to make informed decisions about food taking? 2. In what ways does advertisement and food labels influence the perception of adolescent girls on various food and nutrition products and services? Variables Based on the questions above, the independent variable will be found to be food advertisements and labels while the dependent variable is adolescent girls’ purchasing behavior. Significance of the Study The study will therefore be important from two major perspectives, the first of which is the perspective of advertisers, and the second, from the perspective of adolescent girls. As far as advertisers are concerned, it would be noted that the study will be important in drawing the attention of regulatory bodies to some of the major breaches associated with advertisement laws and regulations. Once such awareness is drawn, it is hoped that the regulatory bodies will be in a better position to knowing the specific areas of their mandate to give attention to when it comes to the issue of checking advertisers for compliance (Kroller and Warschburger, 2009). Still on the advertisers, it is hoped that the data collection exercise will largely contribute to the exposure of non-complying companies and organizations, whose advertisement practices service or act as threat to the consumers to whom they are meant for. The various forms of non-compliance associated with food and nutrition advertisement shall also be exposed through the study. This will give education to the larger public and society on how to be on the lookout against dangerous advertisement practices. On the part of adolescent girls in the United States who are the population for the study, the study will become important as a forum for the assimilation of evidence based information from a more professional and educative perspective. This is because the treats and dangers associated with most of their practices and action that has to do with the perceptions they create about certain advertisements will be exposed. It would actually be the aim of the study to critically identify through both primary and secondary data collection, specific foods, cosmetics and drugs that are of dangerous side effects when used in certain ways by these girls. With such a professional and educational understanding, it is hoped that the adolescent girls will adopt a more positive attitude towards the purchase of such products. To a very large extent, the study will focus on adolescent education in general so that enough education will be given to adolescent on the need to be very careful with the decisions they make about their physical and biological changes as a result of entering into adolescence (Ahmadi et al, 2013). In a recent study, it was said that the absence of proper and comprehensive sex education is to account for the wrong perceptions that girls develop about advertised food and nutrition products and services, following wrong information they take from peers and family (Antunez et al, 2013). This means that if that syndrome of misinformation is eradicated, the tendency of acting based on wrong information will be a thing of the past and the adolescent girls are going to be better informed about their own bodies and how it changes. References Ahmadi, A., Torkamani, P., Sohrabi, Z., & Ghahremani, F. (2013). Nutrition Knowledge: Application and Perception of Food Labels Among Women. Pakistan Journal Of Biological Sciences, 16(24), 2026-2030 Antunez, L., Vidal, L., Sapolinski, A., Gimenez, A., Maiche, A., & Ares, G. (2013). How do design features influence consumer attention when looking for nutritional information on food labels? Results from an eye-tracking study on pan bread labels. International Journal Of Food Sciences & Nutrition, 64(5), 515-527. doi:10.3109/09637486.2012.759187 Federal Trade Commission (1995). Enforcement Policy Statement on Food Advertising. Accessed November 12, 2013 from http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/policystmt/ad-food.shtm Freedman, D.S., W.H. Dietz, S.R. Srinivasan, and G.S. Berenson, The relation of overweight to cardiovascular risk factors among children and adolescents: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Pediatrics, 2009. 103(6 Pt 1): p. 1175-82. Harrison, K., & Marske, A. L. (2005). Nutritional Content of Foods Advertised During the Television Programs Children Watch Most. American Journal Of Public Health, 95(9), 1568-1574. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2004.048058 Hindin, T. J., Contento, I. R., & Gussow, J. (2004). A media literacy nutrition education curriculum for head start parents about the effects of television advertising on their children’s food requests. Journal Of The American Dietetic Association, 104(2), 192-198. Kirkwood, L. (2005). An artist's perspective on body image, the media, and contemporary society. Journal Of Nutrition Education And Behavior, 37 Suppl 2S125-S132. Koplan, J.P., Liverman, C.T. and Kraak, V.I. (2005). Preventing childhood obesity: health in the balance: executive summary. J Am Diet Assoc, 105(1): p. 131-8. Kroller, K., & Warschburger, P. (2009). Maternal feeding strategies and child's food intake: Considering weight and demographic influences using structural equation modeling. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 6 (1), 78. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-6-78 Lackey, K., & Kaczynski, A. (2009). Correspondence of perceived vs. Objective proximity to parks and their relationship to park-based physical activity. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 6 (1), 53. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-6-53 Luder, E., T.A. Melnik, and M. DiMaio, (2008). Association of being overweight with greater asthma symptoms in inner city black and Hispanic children. J Pediatr, 132(4): p. 699-703. Mallory, G.B., Jr., Fiser, D.H. and Jackson, R. (2009). Sleep-associated breathing disorders in morbidly obese children and adolescents. J Pediatr, 115(6): p. 892-7. Norazmir, M. N., Norazlanshah, H. H., Naqieyah, N., & Khairil Anuar, M. I. (2012). Understanding and Use of Food Package Nutrition Label among Educated Young Adults. Pakistan Journal Of Nutrition, 11(10), 934-940. Patel, A., Smith, C., Knowles, T., & Lin, Y. (2012). Nutrition and health claims: An enforcement perspective. Trends In Food Science & Technology, 28(1), 15-22. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2012.06.006 Read More