JUNK FOOD TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS IN PAKISTAN AND EATING BEHAVIOR OF CHILDREN

Abstract

Obesity in children is a worldwide health issue. The health of children has become a primary focus for the parents who seek healthy growth of their child therefore they research about a variety of topics, including obesity in their children. This particular research is part of a larger study which evaluated the Impact of fast-food TV advertisements on children’s eating behavior. The focus of this particular project was to assess the reaction of children after watching fast food advertisement and to find out either advertisements persuade kids towards fast food consumption or not. It will also discuss how some of these advertisements were exaggerated to persuade children to instantly convince their parents to buy them fast food. It should first be noted that overall, children are prone to bad decision making because they cannot differentiate between right or wrong and healthy or unhealthy foods. Every fast-food advertisement was found to be exaggerating for consumption, as opposed to telling truth about the nutrition content of fast foods. This is an important finding because it is just as valuable, if not more so, for parents to prevent a disease in children as it is to detect it early. All fast food advertisement was considered when assessing persuasion in terms of consumption. All advertisement used more than 50% of the time when soliciting money. These results lend ideas for future research on such topics as well as ideas to better the current state of the diseases associated with fast food. The methodologies applied to this research are quantitative method that included questionnaire whereby 300 sample sizes were selected to fill the questionnaire. My study intends to investigate that does children's eating behavior change after watching fast food advertisement? The theory I used in this research is cultivation theory and I came to the conclusion through empirical research that fast food advertisements have a lasting impact on children, not only creating cravings in them, but also making them want fast food from their parents. Moreover, the results of the study support the claim that fast food advertising affects children. Keywords: Obesity, Fast Food Advertisements, Children, Parents, Aggression, Mental Health, Physical health, Eating Habits.