The Marketing of Foods and Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children - Essay Example

The marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children: Setting the research agenda IntroductionThe paper by Halford and Boyland (2013), brings to the fore a very important aspect in the context of a world-wide concern on childhood health. This issue of the paper reviews the current evidence and gathers a number of new and interesting research developments on this topic made by outstanding researchers and policy proponents in the field. As noted in the paper, more useful work has to be done to guarantee that effective and efficient regulatory regimes can be put in place and implemented to minimize the impact of foods promotion of HFSS (high in fact, sugar and/or salt) on the health of a child (Halford and Boyland, 2013, pp. 182-84). In that context, four issues in marketing that need more research to help correct where the problem is and save the children from childhood conditions arise, which include: Widespread beverage and food promotion to children (extensive promotion). Children know, appreciate, and connect with this promotion (target of group). The promotion of food is overpoweringly energy-dense, micronutrient-poor foods (unhealthy diet) (an unethical practice). This food promotion has a harmful effect on the food knowledge, attitudes, purchase and purchase behavior, and consumption of children (promotional Impact). This paper analyses the article on the basis of the four issues, which includes supporting the available evidences. According to Hastings (2003), in the UK, children are exposed to widespread advertising, and the advertised diet does not meet health standards recommended by healthcare experts (p. 5). In the same perspective, a study by Kelly, Baur, Bauman, King, Chapman, and Smith (2011) noted that sport sponsorship by food firms is extensive and investment of the industry in this marketing is enhanced. Companies in this group include KFC, and McDonalds amongst others. According to Hastings, McDermott, Angus, Stead and Thomas (2006), corporate sponsorship of organizations and events represents a kind of food and beverage where children are highly exposed. According to IEG sponsorship report (2010), sponsorship represents the fastest expanding kinds of marketing with industry spending on the entire sponsorship promotions augmenting by 22% from 2007 to a worldwide value of US$46.3 billion. It further indicates that this growth in spending on sponsorship surpasses that of other sales and advertising promotions. Kelly and colleagues (2006) sought to explain why children are very exposed and found in the study by Story and French (2004) that children are Key stakeholders in their parents’ choices. Story and French (2004) found that children are seen by the food industry as a pivotal market sector, as they influence their own purchases and their parents. According to them, developing brand loyalty at that young stage of life also looks for guaranteeing lifelong product purchases. Therefore, it is necessary for the food and beverage companies to advertise to children as they are Key stakeholders. However, evidence show that the evil done by the extensive promotion has not been curtailed. On this aspect, the Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) (2013) public opinion research found that sponsorship of sports and activities of children by unhealthy food and beverage corporations is increasingly extensive, reaching community clubs all through Australia as well as national and state bodies. In the same regard and in support of the fact that Australia advertising on television is at high rates, Young Media Australia (2007) found that children watch TVs on daily basis, an average of 2½ hours. This happens despite the fact that Children’s Television Standards (CTS) covers advertising during viewing times of children. The CTS restricts content advertised to children, nonetheless, only one provision specifically focuses on food advertisements. Even though this is in place, research has indicated that children also form a significant percentage of the viewing audience where the CTS do not apply, especially amid 6pm and 9pm. As a result, the article does not only advocate for curtailing the extensive promotion of unhealthy food and no-alcoholic beverages, but also observing the new dimensions in marketing. Frequently applied marketing techniques include, but are not restricted to, mass-media (television) advertising, point-of-sale, website promotion, employing of characters and celebrities, packaging, free toys, text messaging, computer games, educational materials, sponsorship (e.g. sports) and product placement in movies (WHO, 2006). As noted above, apart from the exposure, children know, appreciate, and connect with these promotions (focus group). Halford and Boyland (2013) note that children are targeted and policy interventions have not been successful. Several researches have concurred with this, especially those that have found that food and beverages are constantly discovered to be profoundly advertised to children during viewing times designated for children (Neville, Thomas and Bauman, 2005, pp. 105-106; Kelly et al, 2007). Food and beverages make up 55%-80% of the advertising. Moreover, during viewing times of children, generally a higher percentage of unhealthy food and beverages appear more than during other times, an indication that children know, appreciate and connect with these promotions (Hattersly, Kelly and King 2006; Kelly et al, 2007). In that context, Kelly et al (2008) found that aggressive and complex methods in advertising are employed to influence children; they include advertisements repetition and the use of competitions and cartoon characters. At the same time, most food and beverage products that basically target children for consumption are marketed differently to children and adults. Jones and Fabrianesi (2008) found evidence that each of the two groups interpret this marketing differently (p. 588-90). Kelly and Colleagues (2011) delved into this matter by examining the ability of children to recall the sponsors of their favorite sports. They found that children have high levels of recalling food and beverage from corporate sport sponsors and they ascribe significant positive attributes towards them such that it is likely to be connected to their food preferences and consumption. As a result, children watching television for more than two hours daily are more likely to consume unhealthy food and beverages packages (Salmon, Campbell and Crawford 2006, pp. 64-66). In that regard, most food and beverage products that target children for consumption are marketed differently to children and adults. In the same regard, on the internet and in print media when compared with other kinds of advertising (e.g. television), sponsorship could possibly be a more convincing kind of marketing because this can help brands to become entrenched within cultures and help children in engaging in socialization and entertaining activities (Rowley and Williams, 2008, pp. 781-3). This is strengthened by the report that marketing approaches have turned out to be sophisticated and multifaceted, which exceeds television advertising since it includes strategic product placement, advergames, internet, and much more (McGinnis, 2008, p. 3). Therefore, these evidences do not only support the article on the extent of focus group, but also highlight important dynamics on how these promotions connect with children. The article has sought to explain that the inherent high levels of HFSS in foods and beverages promoted are alarming. Several studies have also examined this aspect. It was found that food and beverage marketing focuses on having children and youth as target groups, especially when advertising products containing low nutrients and high levels of calories, a practice that do not promote healthy living (McGinnis, 2008, p. 3). It has further been discovered that food advertising bears a modest impact on food preferences, consumption patterns, and nutrition knowledge, with consequent implications for obesity and weight gain. These impacts operate at both the food and brand category level (Cairns, Angus, and Hastings, 2009, p. 12). These outcomes raise an alarm because advertised foods are characteristically the reverse of dietary recommendations. The most frequently advertised foods include savory snacks, sugar-sweetened breakfast cereals, soft drinks and confectionery, and fast food restaurants (Cairns, Angus, and Hastings, 2009, p. 13). In another study, it was found that promotional characters employed by marketers largely on food packaging promote less-healthy food products to children (Hebden, King, Kelly, Chapman, and Innes-Hughes, 2011, p. 349). This is because, most of the acting characters are company-owned, and they are not subjected to any kind of regulation in Australia. It was, therefore, recommended that efforts be made to restrain this kind of marketing to children (Hebden, King, Kelly, Chapman, and Innes-Hughes, 2011, p. 349). In this regard, young media Australia found that children are exposed to about 22,000 unhealthy beverage and food television advertisement per year. This is consistent with the finding that beverage and food advertising is for the non-core beverages and foods that are antithesis of the dietary recommendations of the council on National Health and Medical Research (National Health and Medical Research Council 2003; Kelly and Chau 2007; Hebden, King et al., 2011 p. 776-7). It in this line, the article noted the imbalance in the advertisements targeting children. Furthermore, there is constant evidence in Australia indicating an obvious imbalance in the messages articulated in this kind of advertising (Kelly, Chapman et al. 2011, Zuppa, Morton et al., 2003). As noted, in the drink and food sector, the top most categories of food, which is currently advertised, include sweetened breakfast cereals, soft drinks, confectionary, biscuits, ready meals, snack foods, and fast foods. Most of these beverages and food products contain high salt or sugar (HFSS). In support of this, surveys conducted in 2007 indicated that over 50% of advertisements of food on TV, directed to children was for HFSS foods within Sweden, United Kingdom, and Spain, over 60% in Italy and Greece, over 80% in Germany (Kelly, 2010, p. 1730), as well as over 90% in Bulgaria (Galcheva, Lotova, & Stratev, 2008, p. 859). This shows that advertisements and other forms of marketing of food and beverages directed to children promote unhealthy diet to them, which is directly opposite of what health experts recommend. On the promotional impact, the article notes that the aim of advertisers of using both TV and many other different media for promotional marketing of beverages and foods as generally understood is to promote products, create brand awareness as well as generate consumer loyalty. It is against this basic and noble course that advertisers take advantage to perform unethical practices, because they are very influential in such practices. According to the OPC (2013), exposure to unhealthy food promotion influences what children eat, their desired food to eat, as well as what they bother their parents to purchase for them. Further evidence shows that this kind of marketing influences preferences for food and beverages (Campbell, Crawford and Hesketh, 2007, pp. 11-18). In this regard, supermarkets are settings where marketing employing packaging (novelty and shape value), competitions, giveaways and movie and cartoon characters in promotions is frequent and about 35% of some classes of product use these marketing methods (Chapman et al, 2006, pp. 331-334). Supermarkets intentionally position unhealthy beverages and foods at heights of children and near exits to promote purchase requests for their products (Dixon, Scully, and Parkinson 2006, pp. 124-127). Research also indicates that children watching television for more than two hours daily are highly likely to consume unhealthy beverages and food (Samson, Campbell and Crawford, 2006). Moreover, exposure to unhealthy food and beverages as a result of television advertising is more likely to influence their preferences (Halford et al 2008, pp. 33-37; Dixon et al 2007, pp. 1311-1313). In view of this, exposure of children to food and beverages marketing affects the drinks and food that children prefer, ask for, purchases, as well as consume (Kelly, 2012, p. 1). As McGinnis (2008) established, there is a strong evidence that advertising of beverages and foods on television has a direct impact on what children select to eat and drink. It can be concluded from the evidence available concur with the article’s findings on the four issues that they are highly pronounced in today’s society. Nonetheless, evidence show that legislations and regulations meant to limit promotion of unhealthy foods and beverages are ineffective (Kelly, Baur, Bauman, King, Chapman, and Smith, 2011, pp. 1-7). As a result, advertising and other promotional methods have become sophisticated, but researchers on their effect have not been accomplished in order to ensure effective policy formulation and implementation (World Health Organization, 2013, p. 5). Reference list Cairns, G., Angus, K., and Hastings, G., 2009. The extent nature and effects and effects of food promotion to children: a review of the evidence to December 2008. Prepared for the World Health organization. United Kingdom: Institute for Social Marketing, University of Sterling. Campbell, K. J., D. A. Crawford, et al., 2007. "Australian parents views on their 5-6-year-old childrens food choices." Health promotion international, 22(1), 11-18. Chapman, K., P. Nicholas, et al., 2006. "The extent and nature of food promotion directed to children in Australian supermarkets." Health promotion international 21(4): 331-339. Dixon, H. G., M. L. Scully, et al., 2007. "The effects of television advertisements for junk food versus nutritious food on childrens food attitudes and preferences." Social science & medicine 65(7), 1311-1323. Dixon, H., M. Scully, et al., 2006. "Pester power: snack foods displayed at supermarket checkouts in Melbourne, Australia." Health promotion journal of Australia: official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals 17(2), 124-127. Galcheva, S. V., Lotova, V. M., and Stratev, V. K. 2008. Television food advertising directed towards Bulgarian children. Archives of Disease in Childhood , 857-861. Halford, C. J., & Boyland, J. E., 2013. The marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children. Setting the research agenda. Appetite , 62(1), 182-184. Halford, J. C. G., E. J. Boyland, et al., 2008. "Childrens food preferences: effects of weight status, food type, branding and television food advertisements (commercials)." International Journal of Pediatric Obesity 3(1), 31-38. Hastings, G, McDermott L, Angus, K, Stead, M. and Thomson, S., 2006. The extent, nature and effects of food promotion to children: a review of the evidence. Technical Paper prepared for the World Health Organization. Geneva. Hastings G, Stead M, McDermott L, Forsyth A, MacKintosh AM, Rayner M, et al., 2003. Review of research on the effects of food promotion to children: Food Standard Agency. Hattersley, L., B. Kelly, et al. 2006. Food advertising on Sydney commercial television: The extent and nature of children’s exposure 2006-2007. Sydney, NSW Centre for Overweight and Obesity. Hebden L, King L, Kelly B, Innes C, Chapman K. 2011. A menagerie of promotional characters: promotion of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods to children on food packaging. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 43(5), 349-55. Hebden, L., L. King, et al. 2011. "Art of persuasion: an analysis of techniques used to market foods to children." Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health 47(11), 776-782. IEG Sponsorship Report, Sponsorship spending: 2010 proves better than expected; bigger gains set for 2011. 2010 [http://www.sponsorship.com/IEGSR/2011/01/04/Sponsorship- Spending–2010-Proves-Better-Than-Expe.aspx], [25 February 2014]. Jones, S. and B. Fabrianesi 2008. "Gross for kids but good for parents: differing messages in advertisements for the same products." Public health nutrition, 11(6), 588-595. Kelly B, Baur LA, Bauman AE, King L, Chapman K, Smith BJ, 2011. Food and drink sponsorship of children’s sport in Australia: who pays? Health Promotion International, 26 (2), 188-195. Kelly B, Baur LA, Bauman AE, King L, 2011. Tobacco and alcohol sponsorship of sporting events provide insights about how food and beverage sponsorship may affect children’s health. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 22 (2), 91-96. Kelly B, Bochynska K, Kornman K, Chapman K. 2008. Internet food marketing on popular childrens websites and food product websites in Australia. Public Health Nutrition, 11(11), 1180-7. Kelly B and Chapman K. 2007. The extent and nature of food marketing in children’s magazines. Health Promotion International. 22 (4), 284 - 91. Kelly B, Smith B, King L, Flood V, and Bauman A. 2007. Television food advertising to children: the extent and nature of exposure. Public Health Nutrition, 10(11), 1234-40.9 Kelly et al., 2011. “Food company sponsors are kind, generous and cool”: (Mis)conceptions of junior sports players. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 8 (95), 1-7. Kelly, B. (2012). Food and Beverage Company Sponsorship of Childrens Sport: Publicity or Philanthropy? PHD Thesis, 1-45. Kelly, B. and K. Chapman 2007. "Food references and marketing to children in Australian magazines: a content analysis." Health promotion international, 22(4), 284-291. 10 Kelly, B. e. (2010). Television food advertising to children: a global perspective. American Journal of Public Health , 1730-1736. Kelly, B. P. and J. Y. Chau 2007. "Childrens television sub-standards: a call for significant amendments." The Medical journal of Australia, 186(1), 18. Kelly, B., B. Smith, et al. 2007. "Television food advertising to children: the extent and nature of exposure." Public health nutrition, 10(11), 1234-1240. Kelly, B., K. Chapman, et al. 2008. "Double standards for community sports: promoting active lifestyles but unhealthy diets." Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 19(3), 226-228. Kelly, B., K. Chapman, et al. 2011. "Trends in food advertising to children on free-to-air television in Australia." Australian & New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 35(2), 131- 134. Kelly, B., L. Hattersley, et al. 2008. "Persuasive food marketing to children: use of cartoons and competitions in Australian commercial television advertisements." Health promotion international, 23(4), 337-344. Kelly, B., M. Cretikos, et al. 2008. "The commercial food landscape: outdoor food advertising around primary schools in Australia." Australian & New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 32(6), 522-528. McGinnis, M. J. 2008. Food marketing to Children and Youth: threat or opportunity? Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. National Health and Medical Research Council, 2003. Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents in Australia: a guide to healthy eating. Canberra, Commonwealth of Australia Neville, L., M. Thomas, et al., 2005. "Food advertising on Australian television: the extent of childrens exposure." Health promotion international 20(2), 105-112. Rowley, J., and Williams, C. (2008). The impact of brand sponsorship of music festivals. Marketing Intelligence and Planning , 26 (7), 781-92. Salmon, J., K. J. Campbell, et al. 2006. "Television viewing habits associated with obesity risk factors: a survey of Melbourne schoolchildren." The Medical journal of Australia, 184(2), 64-67. Story M, French S. 2004. Food advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 1, 3. World Health Organization, 2006. Marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children: report of a WHO forum and technical meeting, Oslo, Norway, 2-5 May 2006. Oslo, World Health Organization. World Health Organization, 2013. Marketing of foods high in fat, salt and sugar to children: update 2012-2013. CopenHagen: World Health Organization. Young Media Australia, 2007. "Food advertising." 2007, from http://www.youngmedia.org.au/mediachildren/03_03_ads_food.htm. Zuppa, J. A., H. Morton, et al. 2003. "Television food advertising: counterproductive to childrens health? A content analysis using the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating." Nutrition & Dietetics 60(2): 78-84. Read More