Commercial Advertising Impact on Child Obesity Report

Introduction

There have been increased cases of child obesity across the globe over the past few decades. Children are increasingly engaging in inactive behaviour (such as watching television) and spending less time on exercising (Chou, Rashad and Grossman 3).

Research Question

• Does commercial advertising of foods contributes to the epidemic of obesity among children?

Hypotheses

• Null hypothesis, H₀: Commercial advertising of foods does not contribute to the epidemic of obesity among children
• Alternative hypothesis, H₁: Commercial advertising of foods contributes to the epidemic of obesity among children

Table 1: Prevalence of children overweight

Table 2: Average number of advertisements per 20 h on children’s television (surveyed in February 1996)

Prediction

Commercial advertising of foods contributes to the epidemic of obesity among children.

Data

From the data presented in table 1 above, children in the age bracket 6-11 years among all the ten countries sampled had a certain level of obesity. For example, United States had the highest level of obesity preference in children of age category 6-11 years. Greece and Australia had the second and third highest level of obesity preference represented by a score of 20.5 percent and 19.4 percent respectively. The evidence presented shows that there is link between advertisement and obesity preference among children of all age categories. For example, children in United States watched on a 20 hour average 210 sweet and fatty foods advertisements. Children in Greece and Australia watched on a 20 hour average 136 and 192 sweet and fatty foods advertisements respectively. Children in the Netherlands had a low exposure (77) to sweet and fatty foods advertisements. In a similar way, it will be noted that children who spent more hours watching sweet and fatty foods advertisements had a high obesity preference. Children exposed to long periods of sweet and fatty foods advertisements had a high obesity preference. In all the countries surveyed, children were exposed to short periods of advertisements targeting healthy foods (Lobstein and Dibb 3).

Conclusion

We can conclude that exposure of children of all age categories to sweet and fatty foods advertisements contributes to high obesity preference. Children with the highest obesity preference (Americans with 23.5%) were also exposed to sweet and fatty foods advertisements for long periods (210 on a 20 hour average). Children with short periods of sweet and fatty foods advertisements had a low level of obesity preference.

Works Cited

Chou, Shin-Yi, Inas Rashad, and Michael Grossman. Fast-food restaurant advertising on television and its influence on childhood obesity. No. w11879. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005. Web.

Lobstein, Tim, and Sue Dibb. “Evidence of a possible link between obesogenic food advertising and child overweight.” Obesity reviews 6.3 (2005): 203-208. Print.