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An Analysis of the Correlation Between Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity

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An Analysis of the Correlation Between Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity
An Analysis of the Correlation Between Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity

Karima Kaddouri
Spring 2012
Research Paper # 2

Overweight children are an increasingly serious problem from the public health perspective, as they are at risk for a large number of diseases and medical issues like diabetes, cancer, and hypertension. The rate of teen obesity increased to 15.5 percent and the rate of childhood obesity rose to 15.3 percent since the eighties (Linn & Novosat 2008).

More recently, over thirty percent of American children are considered overweight according to a 2008 study (Linn & Novosat 2008). We can only safely assume that this rate has increased. In parallel with this rise in childhood obesity, the rate of food marketing for children (both regulated and unregulated) has witnessed a dramatic increase (Linn & Novosat 2008). Cap 'n Crunch cereals were allocated a budget of $ 15 million for children marketing (Linn & Novosat 2008). Burger King spent around eighty million dollars on children advertising by the year of 2000 (Linn & Novosat 2008). Nowadays, food marketing for children is allocated 10 to 15 billion dollars per year (Linn & Novosat 2008).

the Institute of Medicine (IOM) conducted studies demonstrating a possible correlation between food marketing which targets children and childhood obesity (Linn & Novosat 2008). Their findings, released in a report in 2006 pointed out that television advertising affects the children 's spending patterns for food and beverage (Linn & Novosat 2008). It was shown that candy, snacks and junk food have the biggest part in the children 's share of wallet (Linn & Novosat 2008). This review supported another study done by the World Health Organization that found that childhood obesity risks are strongly linked to the intensive food marketing and television advertising of junk food and high calories snacks (Linn & Novosat 2008).

There -obviously- exists regulations



Bibliography: Chernin, Ariel. 2008. “The Effects of Food Marketing on Children 's Preferences: Testing the Moderating Roles of Age and Gender ”. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 615: 101 . Linn, Susan, and Courtney L. Novosat. 2008. “Calories for Sale: Food Marketing to Children in the Twenty-First Century ”. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 615 :133. Martine, Stead, Laura Mc Dermott, and Gerard Hastings. 2007. “Towards evidence-based marketing: the case of childhood obesity”. Marketing Theory 7: 379. Witkowski, Terrence H. 2007. “Food Marketing and Obesity in Developing Countries: Analysis, Ethics, and Public Policy ”. Journal of Macromarketing 27: 126 .

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