Adults, too!
This Salon.com article is up in arms over the state of junk food advertising aimed directly at children. But all of its conclusions are just as true for junk food aimed at teenagers and adults, too.
One of the more interesting findings is that junk food ads - more than television itself - contribute to childhood obesity. In Quebec, where junk food ads aimed at children are banned, "the province has the least childhood obesity of anywhere in Canada." Kids in Quebec eat better than the rest of the country, to the tune of 2-4 million calories less per year.
This is preliminary data, and of course there is the "correlation does not imply causation" bugaboo. But it happens to square well with something I have noticed in myself, which is that my junk food consumption goes way down during the periods of my life when I am not watching television.
Six months ago I replaced my television with a computer that acts as a combination DVR/Hulu/Netflix Streaming machine, which cut my actual "watching television with the ads and everything" down to just 2-3 hours a week on Sunday nights. Without the constant barrage of food commercials, I find myself shopping more sensibly and eating a lot better in general.
Another interesting proposal is to ban junk food advertising before 9 p.m., the way that we do for alcohol advertising. This would put junk food in the same category as beer and flavored vodkas: things that should be kept out of the reach of children. No doubt the junk food industry - which spends billions of dollars a year in advertising - would never allow this to happen. But it's worth considering, at any rate.
The junk food industry is happy to make minor changes in order to placate parents. For example, McDonald's now gives parents the option to choose apple slices instead of French fries as a Happy Meal side. Oh great - chemically treated pre-sliced apples packed in a plastic baggie, to go with the cheeseburger and soda. Keep patting yourself on the back for that one, McDonalds!
SMH, as the kids say.
Meanwhile, the junk food industry is aggressively marketing to children, from corporate websites that draw kids in with simple Flash games, to creating ever more adorable cartoon mascots. For the period between 2007 and 2009, kids between the ages of 6 and 11 saw an increase of 56 percent more Subway ads and 26 percent more McDonald's ads. Yikes!