By Andrea O’Brien
As a strategic communications student in the Missouri School of Journalism, the idea of children being “turned on” by fast food logos really interests me. In the classroom, we are taught how to best sell a product, incorporating color, shapes, and other aspects to make a memorable impression on the target audience.
Although the art of advertising is essential to the profitability of a company, rarely do advertisers consider if their ads will have a negative psychological effect on intended audience, specifically children.
According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, “Your brain on a Big Mac: Kids turned on by fast-food logos,” the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) and the University of Kansas Medical Center researchers conducted studies that gave children MRI scans while showing them well-known fast food logos. The conclusions of the study showed that “the pleasure centers of kids’ brains light up, showing that a connection is being made to something considered a treat or a reward.”
Another related article from the Global Post, “Fast Food Logos Branded into Children’s Brains, says study,” shares a quote from the study’s author, Amanda Bruce of UMKC stating, “Children are more susceptible to ‘very motivating, happy-inducing’ marketing.”
Given these findings, it brings up a larger question: Is targeting children, especially with something like fast food, unethical? According to the American Heart Association, 1 in 3 children are obese. In fact, childhood obesity rates have nearly tripled since the early 1960s. Along with these steadily increasing obesity rates, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and even cholesterol issues emerge, and are becoming more of a concern for children today.
Advertising targeted toward children is nothing new, however. In the tobacco industry, the media had portrayed “Joe Camel” as a friendly cartoon that children found enticing. A Los Angeles Times article from May 2007 states that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), by a 3-2 vote, found these ad campaigns to be illegal due to their effect on youth. The judge asked for a cease and desist order to prevent the tobacco industry from using a cartoon to target such a vulnerable and easily-influenced audience. Fifteen years later, could “Joe Camel’s” fate be repeated in the lives of those fast food companies also targeting children?
In 2010, the fast food industry spent approximately $4.2 billion on advertising. That same year, The New York Times noted that the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion had a budget of only $6.5 million. See the problem here? Fast food companies are over-powering those promoting a healthy lifestyle by a landslide in the advertising and marketing industry.
A 2010 article from grist.org stated that the $4.2 billion spent by fast food companies for advertising was purposely utilized to target new customers. Although not all the ads were intentionally aimed at children, about a quarter of that amount, in fact, was, according to the 2006 FTC report.
Children between the ages of 2 and 17 saw an average of 30 percent more fast food ads in 2009 than they did in 2003. McDonald’s and Burger King pledged to adjust their targeting toward children, yet their advertisements actually increased in volume.
Because of this exposure, a survey conducted by Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that 40 percent of children asked their parents to go to McDonald’s at least once a week and of those, 80 percent of parents gave in to their children’s requests.
In conclusion, I believe that if children constantly associate certain fast food chain logos and advertisements with treats or rewards and are instantly gratified with these certain foods that go along with these marketing tools, fast food will remain desired and treasured items for them. This will perpetuate the problematic cycle where America’s youth continue to struggle with avoidable health issues and thwart any attempts to create a more nutritious diet and overall lifestyle.