Maddie Erjavec recently blogged about the issue of advertising unhealthy food to children on TV that interested me, and I would like to further comment and critique on a few points she made. I agree that the increasing number of obese children for the past few years has a lot to do with the increasing amount of unhealthy food advertisements on TV, however one can argue that the businesses who choose to do this are not doing it for a bad intention.
Companies might regard it merely as its marketing strategy because helping the business succeed is priority. However, there must be a limit. In 2004, McDonald’s actually agreed to the filming of the documentary “Super Size Me” because it agreed that choosing McDonald’s the healthiest choice, but in my opinion, once this message has been delivered, McDonald’s should have the right to continue advertising. From that point it would be the responsibility of parents and children to make their decisions.
Also, it is wrong to say companies should never advertise to children because children at least have some buyer power, and just because they’re children it doesn’t mean that they have no ability to filter information and make good decisions.