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Healthier Nutrition For Kids – An Action Plan
Advertising to Children in Canada
Brian Cook, Toronto Public HealthFebruary 24, 2011
What’s Good About Children’s Advertising?
Sometimes healthy foods are advertised
Supports lots of children’s TV programming
Employs lots of people
Can be relevant & entertaining to children
And Now for the Rest of the Story…
A Brief History of Persuasion
1st ad agency
1st printing pressInvention of paper
How We Got Here…
“buy me and you'll get a good bargain”
Advertising Changes Dramatically in 1900s
Growing problem production outpacing demand
Advertising Seen as a Way to Boost Demand
“future of business lay in its ability to manufacture consumers, as well as products”
Marketers Got Smarter…
Realize the power of merging business’ values with those of society CONSUMERISM = PATRIOTISM
Marketers Got Smarter…
Marketers realized that it’s much more effective to appeal to:
than LOGIC
EMOTIONS
X
Appealing to Emotions
Please buy our running shoes. They’re statistically proven to be
the highest quality shoes you can buy
Reasonably priced ($89) Very comfortable We paid the people who made
them as much as we could You can buy them Bob’s Shoe
Store at 555 Retail Street
This (fake) ad for running shoes appeals to you logically
Appealing to Emotions
This one appeals to emotions......
In Search of New Markets, Advertisers Discover Children
An Explosion of Child-targeted Ads
Today’s children are exposed to a greater intensity & frequency of marketing messages than any previous generation
1960s 2010s
Why Advertise to Children?
Because it works!!!
But that’s not the whole story…………..
Building Lifelong Brand Loyalty
“A lifetime customer can be worth $100,000…….. For this reason, building brand loyalty is critical and marketing to kids is the best way to do so.”
A Key Factor Making Children so Appealing…
How much annual spending is the superconsumer responsible for in North America?
The “4 Eyed 4 Legged Superconsumer”
$1,000,000,000,000
Kidfluence, Pester Power & the Nag Factor
Children have lots of influence on household purchases
Advertising to children is a way to get to mom’s wallet
Source: Siegel & Custer. “Marketing to the Superconsumer - Mom and Kid”. Presentation at the 2007 Kid Power Conference
“Kidfluence”
How much household spending do Canadian “tweens” (age 9-14) influence each year?
$20 million
$200 million
$2 billion
$20 billion
“Kidfluence”
$20 billion!
$20B = combined wealth of world’s 28 poorest countries
Influence on Diet & Obesity
TV ads influence children’s: • food and beverage preferences• purchase requests• short-term consumption
Correlation btwn TV ad exposure & overweight/obesity
Vulnerability to Ads: Children vs Adults
Can be influenced by ads?
Age - 30Age - 6
Awareness of ads vs non-ads?
Understands persuasive intent?XCognitive ability to resist ads?XMotivation to resist ads? ??
Marketers’ Strategies
360º Marketing
Most Food As to Kids are Unhealthy
Food37%
Toys27%
Entertainment17%
Toiletries6%
Retail 3%
PSAs3%
Pharmaceutical2%
Cell Phone
2%
Other2%
Education1%
unhealthy95%
healthy5%
January 2008 sample – preliminary results from 12 country TV food ad studyChildren’s Programs in Children’s Peak Viewing Times
Frootloops Television Ad
Cartoon characters Funny voices Bright colours Fast animation/ editing Fast, playful music Playful storyline Fantasy scenario Link to website Contest
Techniques Marketers Use to Appeal to Children
Frootloops Website - Advergames
Viral Marketing
Strategy for marketers to tap into existing social networks and have consumers distribute ads to their friends
Viral Marketing
Sometimes it’s just about making something entertaining that spreads virally across the web
Source: Burger King’s Subservient Chicken campaign
Concerns Beyond Junk Food & Obesity
Limiting opportunities for creative play Promoting physical inactivity Promoting unhealthy body image Promoting sexualization of childhood Contributing to climate change (promoting
excessive consumption) Excessive commercialism and materialistic
beliefs
Bratz Cloe & sister doll Recommended for age 6-8
Raising Children as Consumers
Does promoting consumerism undermine the values of a healthy society?
Circumplex model of values, Schwartz (1992)
Advertising Regulation
Aren’t there laws to deal with all this?
Advertising Regulation
Laws prohibit deceptive & false advertising
But mostly advertising to children is regulated by industry itself
Industry Ad Self-Regulation
Canadian Children’s Food & Beverage Advertising Initiative
Industry Voluntary Changes
Example:
Companies pledged to change their advertising practices
Industry Voluntary Changes
Pledge to not use characters to sell food to children
Will not advertise in elementary schools
Some will only advertise “healthy dietary choices”
Some will not advertise food to children at all
Pledge to not use characters doesn’t apply to ones that advertisers created
vsX
But Lots of Loopholes…
specifically to sell food to children!!
Some Committed to Not Advertise to Kids, But…
Why are there Disney characters on this packaging?
Companies developed own definitions of “healthy dietary choices”, based on “established scientific criteria”
So what foods qualify as healthy?
“Healthy Dietary Choices”
? ?
“Healthy Dietary Choices”
“Healthy Dietary Choices”
“Healthy Dietary Choices”
Jan 2008 Dec 2008NOT “healthy” “Healthy”!!
Creative Labelling Practices
It’s Not Healthy & It’s NOT FOOD
Promoting unhealthy food to children also undermines the food literacy skills that children (& parents) need to develop
Policy Environment Scan
“So who’s doing something about this advertising
stuff?”
Many Recent Developments
WHO (2010) recs on restricting food marketing to children
(2010) F/P/T Ministers of Health called for restrictions on children’s food marketing as part of child obesity strategy
(2011) PHAC coordinated Expert Taskgroup on Food Marketing to Children
(2011) Private members’ bills to be introduced in some provinces
How Do We Tackle Such a Big Problem?
1. Promote Awareness of the Problem
Blow the whistle on questionable marketing practices
2. Challenge the Myths Head On
“Parents just need to turn off the TV”
Parents can’t do it alone, need to build an environment that helps parents and protects children
We already do it here
2. Challenge the Myths Head On
“Even if you want to ban children’s ads, all the cross-border ads would make any law meaningless.”
Not true, 89% of Canadian children’s viewing time is spent watching Canadian channels
2. Challenge the Myths Head On
“The Internet is the wild west, good luck regulating children’s ads there!”
Competition Bureau already investigates online marketing
Online enforcement for children’s ads much easier than hate material or pornography
3. Find Partners, Get Organized
Link w those who are already pushing for changes
Growing List of Supporters of Children’s Ad Restrictions: Ontario Public Health Association Toronto Board of Health Centre for Science in the Public Interest Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Association of Local Public Health Agencies Parks and Recreation Ontario
Canadian Medical Association Ontario Medical Association Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada
4. Anticipate Industry Opposition
Industry opponents of ad ban using same arguments as Big Tobacco
For example….
Question effectiveness of ad banVoluntary approach
works fine
Question influence of advertising
Economic argument
The slippery slope argument
5. Work Locally
Provide parents/caregivers with consumer education info CCFC - www.commercialexploitation.org
Community activities to raise issue’s profile: TV Turn Off Week, experiment with ad free
environments, toy-free daycare/kindergarten
Establish regional/ provincial workgroups
Encourage your org/ local services to adopt a position on children’s ads
Healthier Nutrition For Kids – An Action Plan
Brian CookToronto Public [email protected]
Questions?
Comments?
Observations?
