Are Marketers to Blame for Fat Kids - Essay Example

ETHICAL MARKETING: “ARE MARKETERS TO BLAME FOR FAT KIDS?” Presently, the occurrence of obesity and overweight among children has become very popular in most of the countries of the world. In accordance with the data of Australian health and fitness survey it identified that 11% of children’s are suffering from overweight problems. These children’s are subjected to more diseases and illness which may affect their quality of life in adulthood. Marketers cannot be blamed for fat children’s. There can be other aspects which can make a child fat one cannot blame just marketing such as parents influence, social factors etc. So parents should try to protect their children’s from having unhealthy food (Janssen I Craig, 2004). 1.1 Influence of parents Parents have vast influence on the diet of children. They are the one who shape their diet, because a child firstly learns to eat from home. Parents have more effect on the child’s diet rather than the marketers. It is believed that marketing of food contributes to the rising level of obesity in children’s, which is partly true. Obesity prevention mostly starts at school life of a child. First years of life that is from a child age to adult age, requires continuous prevention from parents. These periods are most significant which involves rapid transactions and high plasticity and mainly parents are the one who controls a child experiences and environment. The main tasks parents possess in early development points to their child potential are the key targets and likelihood of change in early preventive interventions. Mainly parent’s behavior and their feeding practices affect a Childs eating habits and risk related to obesity. They are the one who are responsible to take preventive measures in case a child becomes too fat. Social media, advertising, television etc cannot be considered as the basic reason for Childs fatness or eating unhealthy food. A report identified that 67.3% of parents are concerned of their children’s having unhealthy food. If a child is not subjected to eat unhealthy food and snacks in home, he gets habitual of it outside in the society, school etc. because each child have different family patterns than the other. Influence of parents is also subjected to the economics status of the family, in case if the family has low income or parents are not educated, so they would be less concerned of weight related behaviors. This means children would be watching more TV, consumption of fast food, and junk food every day. This will lead to unhealthy eating and weight problems. Parents play a most important role in the family and children mainly watch and copy their parents. Therefore, no doubt parents have a great influence on child eating habits and behaviors (Benton D, 2004). Parents perspective in relation to food marketing CFAS, conducted a survey of 400 parents, to identify their attitudes in relation to food advertising on television, which is a form of social marketing. This survey was conducted in 2007, it identified that 67% of parents are concerned about the effects on children’s in relation to the advertising of unhealthy food on TV. This means that the remaining number hasn’t considered this matter seriously. A majority of parents i.e. 89% are with the view that government should take action against these advertisements. While 73% are with the view that marketers are not harming the children’s in fact they provide knowledge to them. However, there are good and bad aspect in everything, one just need to differentiate among them and marketers only cannot be blamed for the promotion of unhealthy food among children’s. There are many other aspects such as social factors etc (Peter G Kopelman, 2005). 1.2 Influence of society Society has a vast impact in shaping a Childs opinion. Most of the children’s have a habit of watching television, from where they try to learn who they are. Many programs are promoted on TV guiding children’s about losing weight, being thin and beautiful. Children’s follow these things in order to become a good person in future. Overweight problem can also arise due to laziness and lack of sleep and continuous eating. Many societal factors are subjected to this cause. It have been noted that obese children are often teased in the society by their class fellows or peers. Even some children’s are discriminated or harassed by their own family. This practice makes a child dishearten and creates lack of motivation among them. The result of which is may lead to depression and low self esteem. So society has a great influence in affecting a child’s life (Moss BG, 2011). Causes of overweight It have been noted that children face problems of obese and overweight because of many reasons. Some of which are discussed below: The common factor is unhealthy eating patterns, lack of any physical activity or combination of both. In rare cases this problem is caused due to some medical problem such as hormonal problem. This can be identified by some blood test or physical exam. Most of research concluded that weight problems occur on the basis of family history, but this doesn’t mean that all children’s in that family will be overweight. Those children’s, whose families or parents are overweight, may have increased risk of overweight themselves, but this can automatically linked to sharing of behaviors such as eating habits. Activities and diet of a child is a key issue in identifying weight. Presently, many children’s are inactive, they mostly stay indoors, their physical activities are reduced. So they keep on staying at home and eating which increases weight. For instance, average number of children spends their time watching television or playing games on computer and internet. These things have become very popular among children’s, which have reduced the precious hours of activities. Presently, parents are very busy in their professional life; they have less time for their children’s because of which they are unable to make home cooked food for them. Food choices have changed. Now sugary and high fat foods are considered rather than homemade food. Home environment also effect diet of a child. Choices of food among children’s are influenced by family meals. Most of the parent’s allow their children’s to make their own decisions in relation to food rather than guiding them. Both parents professional life can also increase overweight in a child. Father and mother, if they both are working then they won’t be able to concentrate on their child’s appetite and bringing up effectively (Anzman S L,2010). 1.3 Marketers and social marketers However, many people blame that food marketing directly affects the choice of children’s, which is quite true. Food marketing such as snacks, soft drinks, high fat cereals etc. these affect children’s diet and their weight. In spite of all these drawbacks, marketers plus point is that many programs are promoting advertising diet plans and losing weight techniques, which have proved to be very beneficial for children’s. This shows that marketing have both positive as well as negative aspect. So it cannot be blamed that it the sole character which makes children’s fat. But marketing is a broader concept one cannot rely on just one aspect. It is a very general topic. It involves other aspects also such as social marketing. Social marketing is a broader concept. It involves many thing such as TV, internet, mobile etc. this marketing have provided many benefits to the children’s. But at the same time also has negative perceptions. It is presently promoting all types of unhealthy product on television. Due to this reason many countries have banned marketing of unhealthy food on social networks such as television, internet etc. especially those channel’s whose target market are children’s. So in relation to social marketers, television has proved to be a threat for future health of children’s (Morley Belinda C, 2007). References Anzman, S. L. (2010). Parental influence on children's early eating environments and obesity risk: implications for prevention. International Journal of Obesity 34, 1116-1124 Benton D. (2004). Role of parents in the determination of the food preferences of children and the development of obesity. International Journal of Obesity, 28, 858-869. Janssen I, Craig. (2004). Associations between overweight and obesity with bullying behaviors in school-aged children. Pediatrics 113 (5): 1187–94. Morley, Belinda C. (2007). National Community Survey of TV Food Advertising to Children. Center of behavioral research in cancer: 1-19. Moss BG. (2011).Young Children's Weight Trajectories and Associated Risk Factors: Results From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort. American Journal of Health Promotion 25(3): 190–198. Peter G. Kopelman (2005). Clinical obesity in adults and children: In Adults and Children. Blackwell Publishing. p. 493 , Read More