Does Fast Food Advertising Have an Influence on What Parents Feed Their Children - Research Paper Example

? Does Fast Food advertising have an influence on what parents feed their children? Fast food culture is growing day by day everywhere in the world. Even though different reasons were cited for the increased popularity of fast food among people of all ages, rapidly moving styles and increased personal, professional and social commitments are the major reasons which force people to take shelter on fast food rather than homemade foods. Advertising play a vital role in enhancing fast food culture among people. Advertisers and marketers of fast food use different techniques to catch the attention of the people in general and the parents in particular. Many people believe that the increased number of fast food advertisings is forcing parents to look for fast food options for feeding their children. This paper analyses the question; does Fast Food advertising have an influence on what parents feed their children? Does Fast Food advertising have an influence on what parents feed their children? According to Steel (1998, p.xii) “the environment in which advertisement operates has changed. Companies are under intense pressure to increase their earnings and profits year after year, quarter by quarter and month by month”. It should be noted that globalization has brought huge changes in the business world. International or cross cultural businesses are growing day by day because of globalization. As a result of these things, competition is getting intensified day by day. “The U.S. fast-food market has grown faster than most other segments of away-from-home foods for most of the past two decades. In 2003, the fast-food market grew 2.6% to reach $148.6 billion in sales” (Grier et al., 2007, p.223). Fast food business has a prominent role in children’s market. According to David Buckingham (2007, p.594), fast food market is potentially large for the children. Therefore, fast food advertisers usually create child centered ads for the marketing purposes. Many parents are influenced by the marketing or advertising strategies of fast food companies and feeding their children with little or no nutrition food. Marketers usually create ads with false claims. For example, majority of the fast food advertisements claim that their food contains many nutrition needed for the healthy growth of children. Parents usually do not bother too much to critically analyse or investigate such claims. Fast food items are normally tastier than conventional foods and hence majority of the children like it. Parents usually feed their children based on the tastes of the children. When a child shows interests in a fast food item, his/her mother or father may not think too much about its ingredients. He/she will purchase that item in order to make the child pleasant. Majority of the current parents have some kind of professional and personal commitments. As a result of that they are not getting enough time to think about the nutritional aspects while feeding their children. Fast food advertisements further encourage or motivate them while purchasing food items for their children. Effects Of Fast Food Advertising On Parents Fast food companies make use of plenty of advertising strategies to catch the attention of parents. For example, price promotions can increase consumer preference for a particular product. Moreover, it may increase repeated purchases, and contribute to parents’ beliefs that the promoted item is highly nutritional and frequently eaten (Hoek and Gendall, 2006; Naylor et al. 2006). It should be noted that price promotions always help the companies to catch the attention of the public. When sales decrease, companies often forced to reduce the prices of their products. When prices come down, consumers usually show more interest in a particular product. For example, KFC food items are popular everywhere in the world. However, high prices of KFC products prevent parents from purchasing it for their children, especially in a recession hit global economic climate. Imagine a situation in which KFC announces reduction of prices for a particular item. It is quite possible that KFC has sacrificed the quality of that product for reducing the price. Consumers or parents may not think much about it. For them, KFC is a highly reputed brand in the world and all the items from KFC are of high quality and nutritious irrespective of the price reduction. Fast-food marketing not only affects consumption levels in the community of interest (children) but also influences parents’ attitudes toward fast food and their beliefs about social norms surrounding fast food consumption. In turn, more positive fast-food attitudes and the degree to which parents perceive fast-food consumption as socially normative are associated with children’s greater fast-food consumption. Furthermore, parents’ attitudes and beliefs about fast food mediate the relationship between parents’ reported exposure to fast-food marketing and their children’s fast-food consumption (Grier et al., 2007, p.224). Fast food culture is becoming a status symbol in advanced societies. Kitchen made foods are getting less importance and popularity in front of fast food. Plenty of the parents in modern era believe that fast food consists of all the ingredients necessary for the healthy growth of their children. It should not be forgotten that consistent fast food consumption results in obesity among children. Parents like to see their children in a healthy condition. Majority of them perceive obesity as a sign of physical health. No parent would like to see their children thin or slim. As a result of all the above stated facts, parents usually have a positive attitude towards fast food. Exaggerated or fabricated advertisements may further improve this perception among parents. Dhar & Baylis (2011, p.799) conducted a pilot study about the effects of ban on fast food advertisement in the Canadian province of Quebec. They collected the data using a household expenditure survey from 1984 to 1992. They found that the ban reduced fast-food consumption by US $88 million per year a decrease in purchase propensity by 13%% per week. From these statistics, it is evident that advertising has huge potential to control the purchasing behaviours of consumers. In other words, without advertising, fast food industry may not develop as it does now. Children and teens are extremely vulnerable to misleading advertisements because of their inability to segregate between the good and evil. After watching an attractive fast food ad, they may compel their parents to purchase that food item. Parents on the other hand are ready to do anything to satisfy their children. Many parents have the belief that children may love them more if they accept the food demands of the children. Advertising was earlier concentrated mainly on print, radio and television like media whereas at present it concentrates more on electronic media such as internet. It should be noted that plenty of modern parents of the modern era are addicts of social networks. Advertisers are currently using social networks as a medium for the promotion of their goods and commodities. Viral marketing or Word of Mouth publicity is the core of social network oriented advertisements. Fast food marketers target children and parents with the help of social networks like electronic media. So far this paper discussed the positive influence of fast food advertising on parents. However, some studies yielded different results. For example, Yu & King (2009, p.95) conducted a survey among 318 mothers of children ages 7-12, investigating mothers' perceptions of the content, quantity, and influence of TV snack/fast-food ads. They found that mothers tend to have negative attitudes toward TV snack/fast-food advertising overall, but they do not generally feel a need for more governmental control over this issue. In other words, there are mothers who are capable of identifying the traps in advertisements. Ethics or social responsibility is not a matter of concern for advertisers. Their intention is only to increase the sales day by day, week by week, month by month and year after year. Modern generation is aware of such selfish motives of business people. Even though sustainable development and corporate social responsibility are big talking points in the business world, organizations like to keep these things only on paper rather than in practice. Lambert et al., (2009, p.302) pointed out that even “Children of three years old are targeted with promotions and advertising by fast food marketers, asking them to prefer their brand, and request it from their parents”. It should be noted that children of 3 years do not know anything about the foods they are taking. Attractive advertisements may catch their attention and they may compel their parents to purchase the item which caught their eyes. Marketers or advertisers know very well that majority of the parents are vulnerable to the demands of their children. Malik (2012, p.146) supported the findings of Yu & King. He has conducted a study in Jaipur, India, with the help of a well-structured questionnaire to understand more about the parental viewpoint towards the unethical practices carried on by the food product advertisers, and to find out parents' preferences of food items for their children. His findings revealed that majority of the parents are aware of the increasing risk associated with too many food advertisements that rely on tricks and gimmicks to attract children.  Conclusions Advertisements in general and Fast food advertisements in particular have positive influence upon parents and children. Even though some of the modern parents are aware of the traps made by advertisements, majority of the parents are unaware of it. Majority of the parents believe that fast food is better than conventional foods. This is because of the influence of advertisement related to fast food. Advertisers are capable of constructing ads to promote their products. Such ads will always describe the positives of the product while deliberately hiding its negative aspects. Ethics and social responsibility are rapidly diminishing subjects in the corporate world. Marketers, especially the fast food marketers are particular about profit making. They use all advertising channels cleverly to catch the attention of the consumers. Misleading and exaggerated advertisements are often constructed and displayed by the fast food advertisers. Neither the parents nor the children think too much about the traps in such advertisements. For them, fast food is cheap, convenient and tastier than conventional food. For parents, the burden of preparing food in the kitchen is eliminated by fast foods. Advertisers are exploiting this parental attitude cleverly with the help of targeted ads. In short, fast food advertisements definitely have positive influence upon parents and children. References Buckingham, D. (2007). Childhood in the Age of Global Media. Children's Geographies Volume 5, Issue 1-2, 2007 DOI:10.1080/14733280601108155 Dhar, T. & Baylis, K. (2011). Fast-Food Consumption and the Ban on advertising Targeting Children: The Quebec Experience. Journal of Marketing Research (JMR). Oct2011, Vol. 48 Issue 5, p799-813 Grier, S.A., Mensinger, J., Huang, S.H., Kumanyika, S.K. and Stettler, N. (2007). Fast-Food Marketing and Children’s Fast-Food Consumption: Exploring Parents’ Influences in an Ethnically Diverse Sample 2007, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing Vol. 26 (2) Fall 2007, 221–235 Hoek, J. and Philip, G. (2006), Advertising and Obesity: A Behavioral Perspective,” Journal of Health Communication, 11, 409–423. Lambert, C., Mizerski, R. and Olaru, D. (2009). Summary Brief: Young Children's Fast Food Brand Knowledge and Preference. Society for Marketing Advances Proceedings. 2009, p302-303. Malik, G. (2012). The Unethical Practices of Food Advertisements Targeted at Children: A Parental Viewpoint. IUP Journal of Marketing Management. May2012, Vol. 11 Issue 2, p46-61.  Naylor, R.W., Rajagopal, R. and Suresh R. 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