Television Commercials and Childhood Obesity

Television Commercials and Childhood Obesity

Whether an individual is exposed to life events via electronic or conventional means, he or she is informed near daily that there is an obesity epidemic in America. A large number of adults are labeled as overweight or obese; however, the rate at which children are becoming overweight or obese is alarming. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have a percentile ranking of the Body Mass Index (BMI) for children. Children and teens falling within the 95th percentile of the BIM-for-Age growth chart are considered obese. It also states that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. In 2010, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese (CDC par. 1). If these trends continue, the current generation of children could experience shorter life expectancy rates than their parents. The current generation of children is giving up physical exercise for television and video games. More families do not have a stay-at-home mom available to provide a home-cooked meal because both parents work or the family is now a single-parent household. Gym classes are being cut out of the education curriculum. Although there are several factors that can be blamed for an increase in childhood obesity, the creation of brand loyalty through television advertising is one of the most influential.

There are several different factors that play a negative role in the increase of childhood obesity. In The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, Dr. J. Michael Wieting outlines a couple of factors that increase weight and obesity and reduce quality of life for young adults. One of the factors is that of race, gender and socioeconomic status (Wieting 546). Among the races of Caucasian, African-American, Mexican-American and non-Hispanic African-American, African- and Mexican-Americans combined make up nearly 50% of all the country’s overweight children. Each weighs in with 24%, compared to the 13% of Caucasian children. The highest prevalence of overweight children and adolescents can be found in Mexican-American males. Wieting also discusses that children who live in urban neighborhoods have less places to exercise that are safe and non-violent. Parents also do not have outlets in which to purchase healthy food because fast food restaurants and convenience stores are more readily available than conventional grocery stores or farmer’s markets (546).

Another key factor that leads to an increase in weight and obesity is the lack of daily exercise. Over the past few years, there appears to be an increase in the number of schools that are reducing or eliminating physical education classes (Wieting 547). Whether it is for budget reasons, or to allow students more time to study the core curriculum, the result is that fewer students are afforded the opportunity to exercise in