Unhealthy Food Case Study

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Advertising with Unhealthy Food Should Be Reduced

Nienke Haarmans

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Brigitte van Pelt - Hinkle

Avans University of Applied Sciences

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Advertising with Unhealthy Food Should Be Reduced

Bram is a six years old boy. He prefers watching television, SpongeBob is his favorite program. It is Friday afternoon, his mother allows him to watch two episodes of SpongeBob. There will be advertising in between the two episodes. Bram is fascinated by what he sees. He sees a lot of new toys, but especially delicious candies, biscuits and chocolates. The food that gets him the most excited are the chocolate cookies by SpongeBob.

That same day, Bram is in the supermarket with his mother. Surprisingly, he sees the chocolate cookies from SpongeBob

Without a doubt, banning commercials containing unhealthy food is not a solution. It will cause a lot of resistance from many stakeholders. Three of those are the food producers, the media companies and also the government.

First of all, media communications are important for producers of food. The most important commercials are the ones having the most effect on the buying behavior of consumers. When the buying behavior increases, the revenue will increase accordingly. Food produces have their goal to increase the sales numbers. These will increase by using advertisement.

Moreover, media companies have economical interest in these commercials. They earn a lot of money per commercial and will miss out on money when advertising less. Their most important goal is to communicate as many advertisements as possible.

Finally, the government has its policy. In the current policy, there is a strong emphasis on the responsibility of parents when it comes to decisions being made in the food industry. According to the government, parents are responsible for certain actions and traits of their child. Examples are their use of media, diet and the purchase of food. Furthermore, the food producers are responsible for what the product is being made off and the consequences this has. The government is trying to uphold its current policy as much as

Another reason for reduce advertisements with unhealthy food, it that most of the commercials are focused on children. You find them everywhere you look. Producers use different ways to tempt children in purchasing a product. Moreover, children could start nagging their parents to purchase the product. This is called child marketing. The food industry uses this extensively in different ways, moments and locations. These advertisements can be communicated in public or hidden. Examples are commercials on television, in the store, online games and the sponsoring of events.

In this case, according to Diabetes Funds (2015), ninety-four percent of all unhealthy food advertisements are focused on children. There are about 239 television commercials per week about unhealthy food. Of course, a child will not watch every commercial, but most kids will watch some of these during their week.

Furthermore, all product packaging has a sales strategy. Many of these strategies are focused on children. Out of all these sales strategies focused on children, almost ninety percent do not fit in a healthy child?s