Effects of Food Adverting Directed Toward Children and Adolescences on Food choice and Purchasing Request

Abstract

The contemporary increase in commercial advertisements growth has either directly or indirectly targeted children and adolescences. This is to change and influence their behaviour toward commercial products and restrain them from their early ages. This study was conducted to examine and determine the effects of Television commercial advertisements directed at children and adolescents on their food choice and purchasing requests, and determining the parents' opinion on the influences of the Ads on their children. This study was implemented through filling-in questionnaires face-to-face with children and their parents in Sulaymaniyah city, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The results showed that most of the respondent children spend their spare time on-screen viewing, which makes them easily targeted to the contemporary advertising model. Most of the children (82.7%) were watching TV ads. This has significantly influenced children's behavior toward commercialized products, mainly by food and drink advertising (42.10%). Most of the children agreed that they would feel unhappy, sad and disappointed when their demands are refused by the parents, even though they understand the reason for their Parent's denial. Additionally, the results showed that the parents are concerned about the negative impacts of ads on their children's health and habits; hence they mostly agreed that there should be strict government laws and regulations to control ads in Kurdistan region and Iraq.