We Must Regulate the Advertising of Unhealthy Fast Food

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Recommended: Impact of advertisement on youth

Think back to last year’s Super Bowl. What do we really remember about the event? One might say the game-winning drive, the players excitement, but what most of us remember was the commercials. The hilarious Old Spice commericals, the creative, funny, car commercials, and most importantly the dozens of commercials about food. Ranging from Campbell’s Soup, to Snickers, to Coca Cola, these commercials seem to be shown just for our entertainment; however, although we might not realize it, they do influence our decision making down the road. It no longer amazes people when they hear about how companies pay millions of dollars for a few minutes of airtime on events such as the Super Bowl. Over that past several years, research is starting to show just how the advertisements we seeareinfluencing our decision making and how the advertisement companies are maximizing their likelihood of success. Advertisements are now geared more toward the younger generation, namely children; they come on at times when there is the highest amount of viewers on these children shows, and they generally show conventional and unhealthy snack type foods. The governments of many countries claim that the food being advertised is healthy and beneficial to these children, but studies have begun to show that these foods are in fact high in fat, sugar, salt, and are in no way healthy for children.

Today governments around the world are implementing what they believe to be strict and beneficial laws on what types of food can be advertised to the general public and especially children. However studies around the globe are starting to prove otherwise. In a study based in Singapore, researchers aimed to “determine the degree and nature of food advertisements that Si...

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...dren Watch Most." American Journal Of Public Health 95.9

(2005): 1568-1574. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.

Huang, Liyan. Mehta, Kaye. Wong, Mun Loke. “Television food advertising in Singapore: the

nature and extent of children’s exposure” Health Promotion International, 27.2

(2012):187-196 Academic Search Complete, Web 31 October 2012

Kelly, Bridget, Jason C. G. Halford, Emma J. Boyland, Kathy Chapman, Inmaculada

Bautista-Castaño, Christina Berg, Margherita Caroli, Brian Cook, Janine G. Coutinho,

Effertz Tobias Evangelia Grammatikaki, Kathleen Keller, Raymond Leung, Yannis

Manios, Renata Monteiro, Claire Pedley, Hillevi Prell, Kim Raine, Elisabetta Recine, Lluis

Serra-Majem.

“Television Food Advertising to Children: A Global Perspective” American Journal of

Public Health. 100.9 (2010): 1730-1736 Academic Search Complete Web 31 October

2012

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