Fast Food Ads Are More Powerful Than Parental Influence: Study

Are we surprised? Really?

It's not like the power of TV advertising aimed at kids is news to us. And, at least in the US, parental influence has been engaged in mortal combat with other influences for a generation or more.

But what is compelling is that fast food ads are particularly effective at driving children relentlessly towards fried goodies. And that the impact is felt so powerfully so early in life.

The implication goes beyond the notion that industry lobbyists have - what's the polite phrase? Exaggerated(?), the limits of such advertising. The tobacco industry pulled the scales from our eyes about industry testimony. No, the larger implication is that we tolerate these malign influences, despite understanding the connection between diet and health, nutrition and obesity. Medical costs are soaring, do in large measure to failures of preventive care. The chain of causation leads us to make compromises connected not just to lifestyle but to economics: we are fearful that if anyone who wants to spend money is prevented from doing so, it will contribute to an already weak financial outlook. And how much more can we take, as it is, the thinking goes.

So, as usual, we have met the enemy and he is us. Such advertising funds children's TV programming and that is our inexpensive baby-sitter of choice. But let's not blame politics, culture, immigration, loose morals or anything else when we reap the disrespectful result. We invited this guest into the house, and it isnt leaving. JL

Mark Miller reports in Brand Channel:

It can be very hard to turn down a French fry, especially if you’re a 3-to-5 year old.

So all you industry lobbyists who oppose restrictions on marketing to kids, claiming there is no relationship between marketing and obesity, take note: even direct parental influence doesn’t do a whole lot to put an end to the deep-fried desires of small children, according to a study reported in the International Business Times.
Researchers at Texas A&M International University performed a study on 75 children between the ages of 3 and 5 who got to sit and watch cartoons with commercials. Half of them saw commercials for French fries while the other half saw commercials for apples slices in dipping sauce. After viewing, each kid was given the option of taking a coupon for apple slices or for fries, while parents either remained neutral or urged their child to go healthier and choose the apples, IBT reports.

Of those who watched the fry commercials and had parents that didn’t try to influence them, 71 percent selected fries. To me, it’s shocking the number isn’t higher. For those whose parents tried to get them to have apples instead of the fries, the number went down to 55 percent.

Meanwhile, 46 percent of the apple-slice kids whose parents were neutral went for the fries and 33 percent of the ones whose parents suggested they go healthy did so.

"Parental encouragement to eat healthy was somewhat able to help undo the message of commercials, although the effects of parents were smaller than we had anticipated," lead author Christopher Ferguson said in a statement, according to the International Business Times. "Parents have an advantage if they are consistent with their long-term messages about healthy eating," he said.

See that parents? You don’t have to wait till your kid is a teen to be ignored.