How does media-based advertising directed at children influence their lifestyles to lead to obesity along with the time spent on media and how can this be controlled to the point that kids stay active amidst these temptational ads selling fat and sugar?

  –watching enticing fast food commercials and ads for candy creates cravings for these items- the way advertisers relate to kids’ interest and desires to latch them onto their specific product by selling fun, games, prizes, their favorite cartoon characters, etc

once advertisers have children’s interest, the parents giving in to their children’s wants is the next step. 

authors: Parizkova, Jana and Andrew Hills

 many studies confirm that child obesity is directly related to how much time is spent watching TV and that TV reps a greater reality than ‘real life’. added to this new reality is advertisements for food and drinks that are luring and frequent (10)

programs for weight management in adolescents: outpatient programs, summer camps, school-based programs, principles of weight reduction diets for obese children(271)

“walking is one of the most effective modalities for children, adolescents, and adults”

frequency, duration, intensity of exercise is the main key to keeping healthy (287)

lifestyle habits to reduce inactivity: stairs in place of elevator, walking in place of driving to anywhere, exercise whenever a bit of time, encourage any kind of physical activity.

authors: Hargrave, Andrea Millwood & Sonia Livingstone.

Advertising:\”$15 billion per year is spent on marketing and advertising to under 12s in the US, double the amount spent a decade before; the average child sees some 40,000 television advertisements per year; and collectively they influence $500 billion in annual spending on fast/junk food, toys, etc. (Children Now, 2005).\”

\”..potential harms caused to children\’s health by the advertising of products high in fat, salt or sugar.  …advertised diet differs significantly from the recommeneded diet, and that television advertising directly affects children\’s food knowledge, prferences and behaviour (Livingstone, 2005; Livingstone & Helsper, in press).\”

        -an intended consequence of food advertising.

“…food is the most advertised product category on children’s television, and that confectionery, cearals and savoury snacks are the most advertised” Lewis and Hill (1998). ”

“60% of food advertisements to children are for convenience foods, 6% for fast food outlets, and the remainder for cereals and confectionery (c.f. Young, 2003).”

                - these two talking of problem in UK

“Hitchings and Moynihan (1998) conducted a survey in private and state schools. They found that children recall cereals, confectionery, and soft drink advertisements more tahn any other type of advertisement. The strongest relationships between recall and consumption are for soft drinks, crisps, cakes and sweets. They also found taht higher levels of television viewing are positively assoceiated with the number of purchase requests made to parents.”

“..it may be bc younger children have lower media (or advertising) literacy, they are more likely to be persuaded by dvertising that is based on celebrities, jingles, colourful images, and teh attractive physcial features of a product. Older children, especially teenagers, whose media literacy is greater, are more likely to be persuaded by advertising strategies based on argumentation, especially those that contain high quality arguments and responses to counterarguments. These arguments concern influence, whether positive or neg. in outcome, and depend on what is being advertised.”

I. Obesity due to media

            A. Kids spending all of their free time on various forms of media
1)   Why?
a.   Well funded advertisement campaigns
b.   Accessibility within the environment of the home
c.   Television and computers have been engrained in their lives since birth
            B. Advertisements
1)   Food companies gearing their advertisements toward child affiliated websites
2)   Food websites assimilating a child friendly environment
3)  TV food commercials
II. What adolescents are spending their time socializing online
                              1) Instant Messenger
                              2) Chat Rooms
                              3) Blogging
            B. Gaming
                              1) Computer/video games
             C. Searching the web
                             1) Acquiring Information
                                      A. Personal gains
                                      B. school work
                             2) Shopping           
            D. Entertainment
                              1) Downloading/listening music or video
                              2) YouTube
                              3) Myspace/Facebook
III.   Culture’s Contribution to Problem
          
            A.  Parental Involvement
                              
                              1) Guidelines for what kids eat
            B. School’s Role
                              1) in physical activity
 
                              2) healthy eating choices
            C. Government’s childhood overweight and obesity prevention programs
        
            D. Entertainment Ad Control
           
 

parents-to know how to control this and to prevent obesity in their kids before it happens

anyone studying commercial media-this is the main activity kids are spending their time on-watching television, playing computer or video games, searching the web, instant messaging and web chats

studiers of children’s health-what is to learn about what’s going on now, and what to look forward to in the future. will this overweight epidemic become better or worse?

companies of entertainment related to kids’ viewing-how they can benefit

psychologists-how to work with children and teens suffering from obesity because of media addictions or working with the guardians of these kids to spend more physical time with them..

high-weight related disease educators such as dietiticians/diabetes educators-so they know what who is coming into their offices and why and the most effective ways of treating these adolescent patients

new media programmers-producing a game that blows away every other so that kids will want to waste their lives away beating ONLY their bad guys etc.