Around the world calls are being made to restrict marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks to children as one strategy towards creating a less obesogenic environment for our children to grow up in. It is an important strategy because food marketing can and does influence children’s eating habits – their food preferences, food requests, choices, and consumption¹.

We know childhood is a time when food preferences and eating habits begin to develop. These preferences and habits influence both current and future health so, naturally, childhood is a key time to encourage healthy eating. However, advertising and marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to children are undermining attempts to do so.

Exposure to advertising

Children are exposed to high volumes of advertising, both from television and other advertising media. New Zealand children watch on average almost two hours of television each day² and would see 7,134 food advertisements over a year³. Increasingly, children are also exposed to marketing through non-traditional media. This includes not only branding, point-of-sale promotions and packaging, but product placement in movies or television shows, radio, in-store promotions, magazines, sports sponsorship, school promotions, print and billboard advertisements, branded clothing or toys, viral marketing, toy giveaways, mobile phones and apps, brand mascots, social media, websites, advergames, webisodes, and buzz marketing.

Research suggests there is a misalignment between what children need nutritionally and what is being promoted. In 2005, 70% of advertising on New Zealand television during children’s viewing time was for foods counter to good nutrition⁴. The Institute of Medicine in the United States determined that food and beverage marketing is out of balance with dietary guidelines and contributes to an environment that puts the health of children and youth at risk⁵.

Influence of advertising

Children are especially vulnerable to the influence of food advertising as they may not distinguish the commercial nature of advertising nor differentiate between advertisements and programmes⁶. Under 12 years of age, children cannot be expected to have the cognitive skills to be fully media literate. They deserve protection from undue influence from marketing of unhealthy food and drinks because in economists’ terms, they are not ‘rational consumers’ – they cannot be expected to critically assess information and weigh up future consequences of decisions.

Yet children are seen as an important target market as forming a bond with a product from an early age creates future customers⁷. In 2006, 44 food companies in the United States spent US$1.6 billion advertising their products to children⁸. We only need stand in a typical supermarket to see how powerful children’s demands can be. But children not only influence parents through ‘pester power’, they have spending power of their own. A survey of high-school students in Auckland, New Zealand found four out of five students spent money on food the previous day, with one in five spending more than $10 on food⁹.

Protecting children

There is strong public support for greater protection of our children. In a 2007 survey, over 80% of New Zealand parents and grandparents stated they would like advertising of unhealthy food to children stopped¹⁰. The Heart Foundation of New Zealand strongly supports this position and believes that as a country we must protect children from marketing of unhealthy food and drinks. Doing so has been assessed as a highly cost-effective intervention to help reduce childhood obesity¹¹.

For fruit and vegetables, the influence of marketing presents opportunities that can be used to our advantage. Studies have shown that promotions such as use of cartoon characters on fruit can increase consumption. The argument about whether any advertising or marketing should be allowed to be directed at children is a worthwhile one. However, the current reality is we are far from regulating against advertising of unhealthy food to children, let alone all advertising. In that situation, using all available tools to increase consumption of fruit and vegetables by children is desirable.