Essay Example on Fast Food and Beverage Industry: Harms of Targeting Kids with Obesity

Introduction

The fast-food and beverage industry in the United States continues to view children and adolescents as a potential market for their products, which consequently results in detrimental health impacts such as obesity. Obesity is a sophisticated condition encompassing an excessive amount of fats in the body (Russell et al. 556). According to the World Health Organization (W.H.O), obesity has become a global epidemic contributing to multimodal chronic diseases and disability. In the United States of America, the obesity rate has significantly increased, placing more Americans at risk of a chronic condition (Harris et al. 406). As of 2016, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) contended that more than 70 million Americans are obese, and approximately 99 million more are overweight (Boyland et al. 520). The high prevalence of obesity in America emanates from rampant physical inactivity, genetics, and specifically frequent consumption of unhealthy fast foods. Nevertheless, the condition is also steadily increasing in children. Over the past three decades, the populace of children risking becoming obese has tripled to 37% (Harris et al. 406). As more children and adolescents consume fast food, their prevalence of obesity actively increases. Moreover, the fast-food industry continues to invest millions of dollars in strategic advertisements to attract the burgeoning market. Fast food advertising targets young children by providing free toys with meals and ensuring the ads are placed where children are most likely to encounter them. Therefore, the strategic location of the fast-food products and advertisements directly contributes to the childhood obesity epidemic; to address this issue, fast food advertisers ought to be limited as to where and when they can advertise.

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Obesity in Children

The children and adolescent obesity are continuously rising in America, causing nationwide havoc. Compared to 1980, America accounts for an increase of approximately 35% of overweight and obesity among children and 37 among adolescents (Harris et al. 405). According to the World Health Organization, by 2016, more than 340 million children between the age of five and 19 across the globe lived with overweight or obesity problems (Russell et al. 556). With the steady side, more health risks such as heart conditions increase among children. Against the widely preconceived perception that obesity affects older papulation, today, children succumb to active cardiovascular risks such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes mellitus, which negatively compromises the productivity and future health of the United States (Harris et al. 407). Although the prevalence to obesity emanates from multidimensional causes such as physical inactivity, overeating, emotional and psychological factors like stress, genetic, and pre-existing conditions like insulin resistance, many children attain obesity primarily from unfortunate eating habit, which regretfully makes them vulnerable to other medical conditions (Russell et al. 557).

Fast Food and Child Obesity

Moreover, child obesity has increased in America due to high fast food consumption among young children and adolescents. Approximately one-third of U.S children of four to nine years consume junk or fast food every day, which consequently adds an extra six-pound is a child every year (Associated Press). Many children from high-income communities, male gender, from the community of color, and individuals from the Southern States denote a high level of fast food consumption (Associated Press). Fast food adamantly contains a high level of fats, carbohydrates, and sugar with limited non-starchy vegetables or fruits, resulting in an accumulation of approximately 187 calories daily among child-consumers (Russell et al. 556). With the recent allegation accusing McDonald's Corporation of making people fat, numerous food chain has shifted to providing healthier food. According to Kelly Brownell, a Yale University obesity researcher, fast food consumption rapidly increases the calory level in children, which enhances the chances of becoming overweight and obese (Associated Press).

Fast Food Advertising

Food advertising continues to utilize various measures to attract different consumers to purchase their products. The U.S food industry is the second-largest advertisers in America after automotive due to the dynamic change in consumers' tastes and preferences, daily demand for food products, and high consumer purchase. Children and adolescents have become an intense target market for different fast food producers due to their increased purchasing influence, spending power, and as future adult customers (Boyland et al. 520). With such a market-oriented vision, many marketers use unique advertisement techniques to attract and influence children, adolescents, and youth to purchase fast food (Harris et al. 409). For instance, intense marketing channels encompass in-school advertisements, televisions advertisement, kids clubs, product placement, and incentives like free products and toys with the brand logo, which consequently influences the current and future purchase patterns of the children as customers (Harris et al. 409).

How Fast Food Adds Influence Child Consumption

The strategic placement of the fast-food advertisements of products actively attracts more children to buy and consume such products, which increases their prevalence of obesity. Ads possess the power to influence an individual's perception, belief, and decisions towards a specific product. After exposing children, adolescents and young youths to constant fast food advertisement, whether through in-school advertisement, televisions or internet, their prevalence to such fast food often increase, directing them to alienate the previous healthy food consumption patterns. Boyland et al. (520) ascertain that even individuals that practiced healthy food consumption develop low to moderate food neophobia after being exposed to extreme and repeated food advertisement, enabling them to align in one side. For example, fast food advertisement actively indicates the multimodal benefits of junk foods without portraying their adverse health risks, which make young consumers value such products. The adverts arouse the buyers' or viewers' desires and alert the viewers of the existence of the product while minimizing or eliminating consumers' doubt about the good (Reisch et al. 6). Regardless of the detrimental, long-term health repercussion of consuming fast foods, food advertisers continue to attract children with unique gifts and promotions to purchase sugar-concentrated fast foods.

Frequent viewing of media platforms such as televisions actively adds to children's increased weight gain and unhealthy eating behavior. Fast food advertisements create hedonic hanger among viewers, controlling their emotions, thoughts, and behavioral patterns of consumers, especially children (Sanger). For instance, fast food advertisement causes sensory gravitation and irresistible appetitive features towards the fast food products such as French Fries, Burger, Sandwiches, Pizza, and Fried Chicken inhibiting rational procedure of self-restraint. Furthermore, constant television encourages a sedimentary lifestyle with massive physical inactivity among young people with increased consumption of low-nutrients and energy-dense fast food (Zhao et al. 7). Despite the active engagement in various physical activities and rigorous exercise, many children, especially the youths, succumb to excruciating medical impact of food advertisements such as obesity due to regular consumption of wrong food products.

Additionally, fast food advertisers often utilize influential figures in their advertisements to attract consumers. While children actively learn through mimicking behaviors, engaging or using prominent personalities and cartoons like superheroes or Trix rabbit in different fast food products or company brand, makes many young consumers develop a preference for such goods (Strum). For instance, when adverts use influential football or soccer personality on their products, the fans, irrespective of their age, whether young or old, begin engaging with the products, affecting their choice, preference, taste, and consumption rates (Reisch et al. 10). The strategy increases the consumption quantity of customers without their knowledge, which increases their risks of becoming overweight and obese. Using the external cues unrelated to the sensory food qualities also affects consumers' consumption.

Solution: Limiting advertisements

Regulating fast food advertisements is a critical measure in reducing the harmful increase in obesity among children in America. As the fast-food ads actively cause many children to adopt to unhealthy consumption pattern that increases their affinity to obesity, the National Bureau of Economic Research ascertains that banning the fast-food advertisement will help reduce obesity in children (Lehigh University). With contemporary technological advancement, many children adopt a sedimentary lifestyle concentrating mostly on television programs. Unlike in 1990, today, most children attain information on television and the internet. Social activities like outside play have diminished and replaced by television programs, video games, and social media platforms often characterized by large commercial advertisements (Jacobs). Being the second-largest advertisement industry, restricting the fast-food adverts during children programs would effectively work in changing the predominant perception, and reversing the high obesity prevalence among children. For example, in Finland, Norway, and Sweden, the governments banned fast food advertisements, which have resulted in a positive reduction of child obesity is such countries (Lehigh University).

Counterargument

Although many people blame fast food industries and advertisements for the high prevalence of obesity, such claims have proven continuously insignificant. According to Professor Frank Magee, of Lehigh's College of Business and Economics, "childhood obesity dominates the modern culture, but there is little empirical research relating it with commercial televisions" (Lehigh University). Child obesity also emanates from diverse factors unlinked to advertisements such as genetics, physical inactivity, overeating, psychological, and emotional factors, which also increases children's risk of obesity (Lehigh University). Despite the desperation and struggle to contain the disease, taking extreme measures to ban the fast food advertisements will be unethical and at an economic disadvantage to national and multinational food corporations like McDonald's, who contributes massively to the American financial stability. Rather than banning fast food advertisements, relevant authorities could develop viable strategies to regulate children's exposure to such ads, or create more awareness of healthy food and healthy lifestyles to assist in controlling the increased child and adolescent obesity in America.

Conclusion

Conclusively, fast food advertisement has continued to get the blame for increasing the childhood obesity rate in the country. Obesity is a sophisticated condition encompassing an excessive amount of fats in the body. World Health Organization (W.H.O) acknowledges that obesity has become a global epidemic contributing to multimodal chronic diseases and disability, ranging from hyperlipidemia, hypertension to type 2 diabetes mellitus.