A few weeks ago, four senators sent a letter to Nickelodeon and its parent company Viacom asking that the children’s network ban unhealthy junk food advertisements targeting children. Unfortunately, Nickelodeon refused to respond to pressure to ban junk food advertising on its network, the New York Times reports. “As an entertainment company, Nickelodeon’s primary mission is to make the highest quality entertainment content in the world for kids,” the company said in a written response to the senators’ letter. “That is our expertise. We believe strongly that we must leave the science of nutrition to the experts.”
The senators’ letter asked that the children’s programming network “implement a clear policy to guide the marketing of food to children on Nickelodeon’s various media platforms, including the advertisements on your channels, Internet sites, and mobile platforms.”
Read more about the fight to ban junk food ads
There are very good reasons why the four senators targeted Nickelodeon in their letter. Nickelodeon is responsible for more than one-fourth of the food ads viewed by 2 to 11 year olds, and ranks first among 12 to 14 year olds and 15 to 17 year olds, according to a report released this year by the Yale Rudd Center for Food and Policy. Most of those food ads are for unhealthy junk food. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) analysis found that almost 70 percent of the food advertisements aimed at children on Nickelodeon are for junk food.
Nickelodeon’s refusal stands in direct contrast to Disney’s response to pressure to ban junk food ads. Last year, Nickelodeon rival, Disney announced it would phase in restrictions for junk food ads. By 2015, all junk food ads will be banned. This is a “smart business move,” as an editorial by the Denver Post on Disney’s announcement points out. Responding to consumer pressure is a smart thing for a company to do. Or as the editorial put it, “Companies, reacting to consumer demand, change their ways in order to gain market share or, at the very least, burnish their image with a target market.”
It’s time for a junk food ban
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has been calling for a ban on junk food advertising for years. In 2006, the AAP stated in a policy statement about children and advertising that the Congress should “implement a ban on junk-food advertising during programming that is viewed predominantly by young children.” In 2011, the AAP stated in another policy statement that the “sheer number of advertisements that children and adolescents see for junk food and fast food have an effect.” Any success in dealing with childhood obesity “will require a major change in society's recognition of media exposure as a major risk factor for obesity and in young people's media habits and the advertisements to which they are exposed,” the AAP policy stated.
Childhood obesity is a real problem in the U.S. The CDC estimates that about 17 percent of all children ages 2 to 19 years old are obese. Ads marketing junk food to children contributes to the problem of childhood obesity. A 2011 Australian study found that until eight years old, most children are not capable of appreciating the commercial purpose of television ads and are “particularly vulnerable to its persuasive techniques.” Clearly, junk food ads targeting children need to be banned.
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Photo Credit: Christian Heindel
