Marketing food and drink to children responsibly

Abstract

Looks at how food and drink have been marketed to children over the last 15 years. Shows how the “compression culture” of the 1990s, where parents were cash rich and time poor, combined with trends towards fewer children, dual income families and rising divorce rates to foster parental indulgence of children during “quality time”, and thus to “kid power”. Describes how products became aimed at children, as food manufacturers realised that if they made products that appealed to children and induced them to ask their mothers for it, these products would probably be bought. Moves on to the pressure on companies to produce and advertise healthier foods because of the incidence of childhood obesity, and the responses to this of firms like McDonald’s, Kraft and Kellogg’s: reduction of sugar, fat and salt content and additives, promotion of healthier and more active lifestyles, a switch to targeting mothers instead of children, and use of the internet. Concludes with a list of points for consideration by responsible marketers of foods with high fat, sugar and salt levels: they concern advertising honesty, transparency and balance.