Children Are Confused by Healthy Fast Food Ads!
Recent studies have provided very interesting and at the same time shocking results: children, being exposed to fast food ads promoting healthy food, get confused and cannot pick the healthy choice! The link of the article is: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/children-confused-healthy-fast-food-073800254.html, and it states, that "Dr. Michael Gabriel of GPM Pediatrics, a New York City Pediatric Center, comments on this study by saying that advertisements need to change" (GPM Pediatrics 2014). Dr. Gabriel claims, that healthy options for fast food restaurants is a great idea in the first place, yet "if children cannot identify the [healthy] alternatives, it is nearly pointless" (GPM Pediatrics 2014). And the results of the studies show that children could not distinguish between "Fresh Apple Fries" presented by Burger King and simple French Fries, which, in my opinion, is a disappointing and disastrous tendency. I remember myself, growing in a town with no fast food restaurants and as a results no fast food ads whatsoever; and I was a happy child eating fresh food and homemade meals. Nowadays children cannot distinguish between greasy oily French Fries and Fresh Apple Fries?
The article also suggests that it is crucial for parents to provide a communication between them and children about nutrition. I totally agree that it should be responsibility of parents to protect children from so many fast food ads and as a result from forming bad eating habits. Undoubtedly, fast food companies are not that cruel just influencing children to have hamburgers for lunch all the time as it may seem from the first prospective; and they try to offer healthy choices, such as milk, juice and fresh vegetables and fruits. Yet, this article shows that the ads, aimed to promote this healthy choices are not that effective as the fast food ones. So the problem nowadays is to find a strategy to persuade children to buy Apple Fries instead of French Fries. I do hope it will succeed.
References:
GPM Pediatrics. "Children Confused by Healthy Fast Food Ads; Brooklyn Pediatrician Offers Insight". finance.yahoo.com. 9 May, 2014. URL: <http://finance.yahoo.com/news/children-confused-healthy-fast-food-073800254.html>
Picture retrieved from:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/fast-food-and-child-obesity.html
I can agree with you, when I was a child my parents taught me that fast food is bad for my health and it should not be included in my everyday diet. Anyway the tendency today, that children cannot distinguish between healthy and unhealthy food is really shocking, of course there are much more fast food ads and they are more attractive for children, rather than ads of healthy food, so parent should teach their children what is good for their health and what is not. I read about some researches, which were made in US and UK, that children do not know how the vegetables should look like. For example they know what ketchup is, but have know idea how tomato looks like, In Russia I have never seen such a children. Check out a video clip of one of those tests in the UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiShJt2XVdw
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