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Kelly Conlisk
Cynthia Hamlett
ENGL 102H
October 14, 2015
Fat Kids and Fat Wallets: Marketing and the Rise of Childhood Obesity
Major food companies spend billions of dollars every year to market unhealthy food to
children. The obesity epidemic has tripled in the last three decades and the marketing techniques
used by fast food companies are to blame. Today, children are more obese than they have ever
been before. According to research proposed in 2012, nearly one third of children are obese
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Doublespeak is a method that is used to confused
of manipulating words into nonsensical, made-up phrases to make the bad sound good, the
excruciating sound acceptable, and the good stuff seem so much better (William Lutz).
Doublespeak comes with the expense of childrens health by making them more susceptible to
high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. Doublespeak is the foundation that
leads corporations to money. However, is it fair to make children big and fat with greasy food
while corporations fatten up their wallets?
Obesity began to steadily increase in the middle of the twentieth century. The epidemic
increased so rapidly from the 1970s to today that the hypothesis of a genetic change was deemed
nonsense (Dawes). In the past thirty years there was an environmental change that expanded
childrens waistlines and increased the size of their car seats (Consuming Kids). The rapid
change of childrens weight and diet in the last thirty years can be the result of several factors:
the decreased amount of land space for children to play outside, poor nutritional habits that are
supported by parents, excessive homework that decreases childrens physical activity, and media,

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which is arguably the most influential factor of childhood obesity; it is the factor that convinces
children to eat cartoon shaped macaroni, sugar loaded breakfast cereals, and fast food that comes
with a toy (Dawes).
Childhood obesity is increasing among minority populations more rapidly than in white
neighborhoods. African American and Hispanic children have been studied and revealed to spend
fourteen or more hours a week watching television than white children. According to Dr. Diez,
the time a child spends watching advertisements can play an alarming role in the current obesity
epidemic. A study observed that African American television programs are more likely to
advertise dessert foods and less likely to broadcast commercials that promote a healthy lifestyle.
Magazines that are targeted toward minority audiences are also less likely to show health and
wellness ads compared to magazines that are directed to a white audience. Although constant ads
can influence a child no matter their race the ads are more dangerous for minority children since
they are genetically more prone to obesity. Market research has also concluded that minority
children tend to respond better to advertisements that market directly to their ethnicity by playing
certain types of music and dressing actors in relatable clothing (Cartere).
Advertisers began to recognize that children had a large buying power during the 1960s
and began to directly market to children through television advertisements. The marketing
strategies up until the late twentieth century were direct and simple. Corporations did not do a lot
of market research and spent a minimal amount of money toward child advertisements. The
commercials described the product and demonstrated the products real-life capabilities. During
the 1990s - marketing strategies began to change. The ads transformed from being honest to
manipulative. The television advertisements were cluttered with colors, symbols, loud noises,
made-up words, and prided the product on nonexistent features. The advertisements became so

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effective that the advertisers did not need to describe the product. Junk food and toy companies
were able to get away with injecting children with an artificial need for a product.
According to a study that analyzed fifty-five advertisements, about twenty-eight percent
of the advertisements used symbolic messages for snack food. The effectiveness of symbolic
marketing is alarming because it proves that kids do not need to be convinced of how the food
tastes for them to consume it. The symbolic messages used for junk food were primarily
surrounded by the theme of being cool. According to Juliet Schor, branded [junk] food
comes to occupy an increasingly central position in childrens sense of identity, their
relationships to other children and adults, and the construction of meaning and value that
structures their lives.
Parents have complained about the nutritional values that fast food companies are
teaching to young children. The fast food and snack companies argue that they have begun to
advertise healthier options to children to comply with parents requests. Unfortunately the
improved products are not advertised appropriately. A beverage might claim to be loaded with
vitamins but fail to mention the amount of sugar. For example, McDonalds has introduced the
Fruitizz drinks to comply with nutritional standards, but they fail to mention that the drink
consists of forty-nine grams of artificial sugar (Nikolas).
Unsurprisingly, the marketing strategies are very effective. Market researchers are
recorded to perform borderline pedophilic lengths to effectively market to children. The
marketing pedophiles research children and follow them while they play, eat, sleep, and use the
restroom. Market studies will test the responses to advertisements by testing the amount of times
the child will blink (Consuming Kids). Furthermore, parents have been asked to keep a journal
and write down the amount of times a child will nag and beg for a product (The Corporation).

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The advertisements have effectively taught children how to nag to their parents. The type of
nagging and incessant bothering to parents can convince them to purchase products that the
parents do not want to buy (The Corporation).
Health conscious parents have also fallen under the manipulation of doublespeak.
Business officials stand by their argument that advertisements do not contribute to childhood
obesity rather it is the parents who cannot control their kids. Officials argue that children enjoy
advertisements and want to be exposed to the products. The marketing strategies have exceeded
beyond what a parent can control due to the overwhelming nature of the advertisements. The
advertisements are present on television, Internet, boxes, print media, product placement,
promotional offers, giveaways, and schools.
McDonalds and cereal corporations offer toys and trinkets with their products to advertise
to children. The toys in Happy Meal Boxes relate to popular children movies including Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles and Despicable Me. Children will feel a trust with the characters and
will nag their parents to buy them a McDonalds Happy Meal. In a way, the movies become
advertisements themselves. The movie will participate in the marketing techniques by using
product placement. Product placement is a method of placing brands in peoples site during the
movie. Junk food brands can effectively and cheaply market products by associating macaroni
and cheese, fruit snacks, and other products with cartoon characters. Some children are reported
to claim food tastes better when it is shaped like cartoon characters (Consuming Kids). Children
are also targeted with giveaways and premiums. Giveaways can vary from a small trinket to a
television set. Sweepstakes will offer codes on the back of a package that are redeemable online.
Recently advertisers have begun to connect with children and adolescents through the
Internet. Junk food brands put links to game websites on packages. There has been a slight

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decrease in the amount of advertisements children view on television since 1977 so businesses
have began to compensate through the Internet. Big markets have started including online
advertisements in videos, Facebook feeds, and have created computer games to play online for
children. Adolescents are also accessible through their cell phone and can receive text messages
that will offer coupons and promotional offers.
Parents cannot avoid a childs exposure to advertisements when they are sent to school. A
school in Virginia had report cards sent home that were in Ronald McDonald envelopes and
promised children a gift certificate to McDonalds for children with good grades (Wilks). These
companies have even sought to make a trustworthy reputation with schools. Pepsi Refresh and
MyCoke Rewards allow customers to buy their products to raise money for school supplies. The
childrens school lunch system is becoming dominated with fast food items. Processed junk food
such as pizza, burritos, cheeseburgers, and chicken nuggets are offered to children since that is
the food they are most familiar with at a young age. Children are given chocolate milk with loads
of sugar and chicken nuggets in the shape of stars and dinosaurs.
The approaches that marketing companies use are similar to those that are used in
marketing drugs. Researchers interviewed children and found that many children are attracted to
drinking soda in order to be hyper. Advertisements to children are not the same as adult
advertisements, but they use the manipulative phrasing and over exaggeration the same as
children ads.
Advertising comes with a cost but also provides massive benefits for the producers.
According to a study of industry expenditures, forty-four different companies revealed they spent
1.6 billion dollars on marketing to children in 2006 (Wilks). Studies also linked that there are
more food ads exposed during popular television hours including Saturday morning cartoons and

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evenings to effectively target children. Children are exposed to roughly twenty-seven food
advertisements per day on television programs. Most of the advertisements boast foods that are
sugary, oily, fatty, and lack nutritional value (Shor).
The advertisements are unavoidable and are conquering the media that adults and
children are exposed to. Children are the future adult consumers and are faced with propaganda
every day. Their choices are compromised and overridden with what the media forces them to
want. It is nearly impossible to avoid the nonsensical words from politicians, the advertising
techniques by corporations, and the misleading lies used to lure consumers into purchasing a
product. The doublespeak in commercials does not advertise a real product. The corporations
advertise a product that does not exist. It is unfair to victimize a child by compromising their
health for money.

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Work Cited
Cartere, Jason Y. TV, Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity. New York: Nova Science
Publishers, 2009. eBook Academic Collection. Web. 24 Sep. 2015.
"Childhood Obesity Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 27 Aug. 2015. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood. Dir. Adriana Barbaro. The Media
Education Foundation, 2008. YouTube.
Dawes, Laura. Bigger Bodies in a Broken World. Childhood Obesity in America: Biography of
an Epidemic. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2014. eBook
Academic Collection. Web. 26 Sep. 2015.
Lutz, William. The World of Doublspeak. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers.
11th ed. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print.
Nikolas, Katerina. "McDonald's Fruitizz Drink for Children Has 12 Spoonsful of Sugar." Digital
Journal. Digital Journal, 09 May 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
Schor, Juliet B., and Margaret Ford. "From Tastes Great to Cool: Children's Food Marketing and
the Rise of the Symbolic." Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics 35.1 (2007): 10-21.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Sep. 2015.
The Corporation. Dir. Mark Achbar. Big Picture Media Coorporation, 2003. Youtube.

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