The Correlation Between Television Advertising And Obesity

INTRODUCTION The increased prevalence of child obesity has served as momentum for research to determine the nature, dimensions and significance of the relationship between Television advertising and obesity. This issue has raised major debates among policy makers, academicians, the public and even marketers themselves. The most commonly used measure of obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI) and it is calculated by dividing the weight by the square of individual’s height. The Hasting’s review (2003) states that a majority of children’s food promotion is conveyed by television advertising, with the majority of such promotions focusing on sugar laden breakfast cereals, confectionary, soft- drinks and savory snacks. According to the Centers†¦show more content†¦More recently, Caroli et al. (2004) offered supporting evidence that exposure to diverse media content which includes food advertising was of great influence on children’s eating habits. Henderson and Kel ly (2005), established children’s frequent exposure to TV snack and enticing fast-food advertising as very are important factors in that contribute to them developing unhealthy eating habits that could result in obesity. Concern about food advertising directed toward children, estimated to be more than $1.6 billion per year annually (FTC 2008), has grown, along with the incidence of childhood obesity, which has tripled in the past three decades (Harris et al. 2009). The relationship between advertising and obesity is even yet the more strengthened by theories like the classic externality theory of obesity which postulates that the obese are more inï ¬â€šuenced by external stimuli than are the lean (Schacter, 1971). It can be assumed that the predominant advertising techniques aimed at children are inhibitory in nature on purpose such that children are less willing to critically evaluate specific advertisements. LITERATURE REVIEW According to the American Association of Paediatrics (AAP), the average child in the United States watches about four hours of television daily. If time spent in front of the television playing video games or watching DVDs is added, the total time spent sitting in front of the TV screen increases (AAP