The Facts about Food Marketing to Kids

Children require special consideration in areas such as advertising, and the presentation of material that "may be harmful to them", due to their developmental stages. Children under eight years old do not have the critical literacy skills to recognise the persuasive intention of advertising.

Unhealthy food and drink companies spend billions of dollars per year on advertising and marketing promotions because they work. Food marketing affects children's food choices and purchasing requests.

The marketing of unhealthy food and drink to children takes many different forms. There are the obvious mass media strategies like television, radio, cinema and print advertising. But there are also  less obvious strategies such as in-store and point of sale promotions, television product placements and sponsorship activities.

Did you know that...?

• Australian children watch 2-3 hours of television a day, with the majority on commercial TV stations.

• Fast food restaurants and confectionery are the two most common categories of food ads shown during children's viewing times.

• Food advertising uses attention grabbing and persuasive promotional techniques such as endorsements by characters and celebrities, ‘premium offers', visuals, jingles and claims which can misrepresent the true nutritional value of the food.

• Children are a key target audience for food manufacturers, as there are proportionally more ads for unhealthy foods during TV shows that are most popular with children.

• Current regulations generally apply to advertisements screened during TV shows rated C (for children) and P (for preschoolers). The peak viewing period for children under 14 years old is 5-9pm when up to 500,000 children watch TV, and when unhealthy food and drink ads are also most frequent.

• Advertising influences children's food preferences which undermines parents' efforts to provide their children with a healthy diet.

• The balance of ads for healthy and unhealthy food groups is well out of proportion to healthy eating guidelines.

• Nearly one in four Australian children is overweight or obese.

• Overweight and obese children have a high risk (80 per cent) of becoming an overweight or obese adult. Social isolation, poor self-esteem and depression are linked to weight problems. Their chances of developing diabetes, some types of cancer and heart disease are significantly increased.

You can read more about junk advertising to children in Coalition on Food Advertising to Children's (CFAC) briefing paper, Children's Health or Corporate Wealth: The case for banning television advertising to children.

The Parents' Jury would like to thank the CFAC for its assistance in the compilation of this material.