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Calories for Sale: Food Marketing to Children in the Twenty-First Century

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Linn

    (Media Center of Judge Baker Children's Center, Harvard Medical School)

  • Courtney L. Novosat

    (Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood in Boston)

Abstract

Budgets for marketing to children have spiked well into the billions, an escalation that mirrors the rise in childhood obesity rates. Children are targets for a maelstrom of marketing for all sorts of products enabled by sophisticated technology and minimal government regulation. Despite the fact that recent studies document links between food advertising and childhood obesity, a significant proportion of marketing that targets children is for energy-dense, low-nutrient food. Moreover, advances in digital technology allow marketers to find more direct, personalized gateways to reach young audiences that sidestep parental authority and bank as much on the unknowing parent as the gullible child. Cataloguing the depth and breadth of child-centered food marketing while discussing grassroots strategies for instituting change, the authors argue that parents can no longer keep pace either with innovations in advertising or increased spending, suggesting the need for more stringent government regulations on food marketing to children.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Linn & Courtney L. Novosat, 2008. "Calories for Sale: Food Marketing to Children in the Twenty-First Century," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 615(1), pages 133-155, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:615:y:2008:i:1:p:133-155
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716207308487
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Harrison, K. & Marske, A.L., 2005. "Nutritional content of foods advertised during the television programs children watch most," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(9), pages 1568-1574.
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