Childhood Obesity

        Childhood obesity is a growing concern for Canadian and American children every day. With the advancement in today’s technology, food marketing budgets that are catered towards children have increased a sizeable amount much like the North American childhood obesity rate. A large amount of that budget is for food products that are not healthy for a child to be eating on a regular basis which is a factor in the growing childhood obesity rate. One of the main marketing schemes on children for fast food restaurants is offering a toy with every kid’s meal. The way that companies market their food products towards children is a large factor in the heavy increase in childhood obesity.

        Around 26% of 6-19 year old Canadians are either overweight or obese. Those rates have almost tripled since 1981. (Hobin et al, 2012)    With no coincidence the marketing budgets for companies have also increased. This is such a large problem because a majority of overweight kids go onto become overweight or obese adults which can have serious health risks such as diabetes, cardio vascular disease as well as cancer. (Veerman et al. 2009) There has been a study done in 2012 that has looked at the effects of toy premiums that fast food chains offer with kids meals to see if children will pick a healthier meal if it came with a toy rather than an unhealthy meal without a toy. (Hobin et al, 2012) The results were fairly convincing that a child will select a healthier meal if it came with a toy. The fast food industry spends roughly $360 million on toys each year. (Dorfman, 2012) The 2009 study by Veerman et al. came to the conclusion that between one and seven to one and three children would not be obese with the absence of advertising for unhealthy foods.  

The marketing budgets for foods directed towards children have been increasing each year. The childhood obesity rate is also increasing each year. A large portion of this marketing budget is for energy dense low nutrient food (Linn & Novosat, 2008) which can be correlated with the obesity rate among children in North America. Although there is no direct cause and effect relationship between the two variables, the correlation can be seriously considered when looking at the rates of childhood obesity. Considering today’s society, where a high number of children have access to the internet and television, it is becoming easier and easier for food companies to market their unhealthy products in the direction of children. Since 1983, marketing budgets have gone up in tenfold and now corporations are spending between 10$-15$ billion a year with advertisements and different marketing ventures towards children (Linn & Novosat, 2008).

Capitalistic food corporations do not care about the effects that their products have on their customers as they are only concerned with the profit that they bring in; therefore, they will allocate an appropriate amount on marketing towards children in order to maximize profits even if it has negative health effects on the customers. The marketing strategy that almost every fast food restaurant around the country uses is the use of offering toys with all kid’s meals. In 2008, more than 1.2 billion meals with toys were sold in the USA which made meals with toys the leading meal choice for children under the age of 13. The use of toy premiums that come along with meals is a major factor of a meal choice for a child. A child is more likely to choose a meal from a fast food restaurant if it came with a toy. (Hobin et al. 2012) The television advertising for fast food restaurants often will include what the latest toy is that comes with the kid’s meal. Just about every kid loves toys, so when one sees a new toy being advertised on the television, they will try to convince their parent to take them to the restaurant so they can get the toy. Eating fast food has been linked to childhood obesity. The kids may not go to the restaurant if they were unaware of the latest toy that was included with their meal. If the child does not go to the fast food restaurant, he or she may have a smaller chance of being obese. Advertisements and toys are not the reason children in today’s society are fat and overweight, but it is what the advertisements represent and what they cause that is the link to childhood obesity.