Are Parents Just Not Getting The Hint?

By , SparkPeople Blogger
Food marketers will do just about anything to get our attention- or rather, the attention of our children. That's why it's important for parents to be aware of the tactics used to promote unhealthy foods to their kids. With all of the recent talk about childhood obesity rates and improving kids' health, you'd think that parents would be smarter and learn to make better choices for their kids. But according to new research, that's not the case.

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, researchers at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy took a look at all of the foods packaged with cross-promotion in the supermarket. Cross-promotion means the food also advertises cartoon characters, sports figures, TV shows, etc. The findings are published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.

The study found that "Cross-promotions targeted at children and teens increased by 78 percent from 2006 to 2008, and only 18 percent of products examined met accepted nutrition standards for foods sold to youth. The nutritional quality of kids food products with cross-promotional packaging also declined during the period of study." This means that the volume of food being targeted to kids is going up, and most of it is junk.

"Food manufacturers that have pledged to limit marketing to children through the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative represented 65% of all youth-oriented cross promotions observed in the study," according to the researchers. The problem is that these pledges don't apply to marketing that targets children in the store.

So what can parents do? It's not easy when you're walking through the grocery store and your kids spot the box of sugar cereal with SpongeBob on the front. Sometimes it's easier to give in rather than start a fight in Aisle 12 or listen to whining through the rest of the store. But I think the more we give in to things like that, the harder it becomes to say "no" next time.

Food marketers only use these tactics because they work. If they weren't effective, the numbers wouldn't keep increasing. It's time for parents to start saying "no" for the health and well-being of our children.

What do you think?