Fast Food Advertising and the Effects on Youth The Business of Food Fast Food Advertising and the Effects on Youth

Big Budgets In 2012, the fast food industry spent $4.6 billion in advertising McDonalds alone spent $972 million to advertise its products; that’s almost 3 times more than all fruit, vegetable, milk, and bottled water advertisers combined.

The Intended Targets Just six companies are responsible for producing over 70 percent of television ads seen by kids. McDonald's, Subway, Burger King, Domino's, Wendy's and Yum! Brands (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC) Of the top 25 fast food advertisers, 19 raised their rates of advertising to preschoolers, and 14 increased the number of ads to older children. In 2012, U.S. preschoolers were estimated to have viewed 2.8 fast food ads on TV each day Children between 6-11 years old viewed 3.2 ads Teens viewed an average of 4.8 ads

What Are They Selling You? A 2013 report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest which examined 34 fast food restaurants found 97 percent of kid’s meals do not meet recommended nutrition standards. The percentage of kids meals which classify as “healthy” stands at 1 percent.

What are they selling you? Fast food ads also use an emotional appeal to sell their products... While you may think their commercials are only trying to sell a soda or burger, they are also selling an image of happiness. Emotional appeal is used to create a positive association with the product being advertised. This is used to increase the products “likeability” in hopes the consumer will later select the product being sold.

Effects on Health Exposure to fast food advertising can potentially have negative effects on the diets of children and teens... It is estimated that every day, 33 percent of children (2-11) and 41 percent of teens (12- 19) consume fast food.

Effects on Health Daily caloric intake is increased by 126 calories for children and 310 calories by consuming fast food. The amount of total sugar, total fat, and sodium is also increased. Over consumption of fast food can lead to: Cardiovascular disease Cancer Liver disease Type-2 diabetes

Where are the Health Food Ads? The Centers for Disease Control’s budget for the nutrition, physical activity, and obesity of all Americans is limited to around $41 million. The US Department of Agriculture’s Team Nutrition whose main objective is to improve kids eating and activity habits has an annual budget of $10 million. These numbers are a significant contrast from the multi-billion dollar budget of the fast food industry...

Got Health? What can be done to promote health food? “We must change the game. We can help solve the obesity crisis by stealing junk food’s playbook, by creating passion for produce, by becoming demand creators, not just growers and processors.” -Jeffrey Dunn Former President of Coca-Cola