Ruminations

Lifetime Brand Enthusiasts

"The numbers are shocking. These are not your grandmother's commercials. Food and beverage manufacturers have neuro-psychologists working with them. They use MRIs. It's hard to defend yourself against ads."
"We have seen a huge proliferation of ads online. Entertainment is blended with marketing. It's hard for children to understand that they're being marketed to."
"Children 11, 12 and 13 years old are doing the work of a marketing firm when they're forwarding [ads for their favourite products] things to their friends. To identify with a brand helps to define who you are. Kids love these brands."
"Children's exposure to food and beverage advertising has actually increased. People who work in marketing are extremely creative."
Monique Potvin Kent, assistant professor, University of Ottawa School of Epidemiology and Public Health

"There is no silver bullet, but this will help [Bill S-228 before Parliament]."
"The advertisers know it works [ads designed to capture children's attention, imagination and loyalty]. If you create a customer by the age of ten, you have a dedicated customer for life."
Nancy Greene Raine, retired Conservative senator, former Olympian

A single glass of apple juice contains the same amount of sugar as four or five apples do, without any of the fibre

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Dr. Potvin Kent led a new study by University of Ottawa researchers, the result of which concluded that 72 percent of children and youth, fixated on social media, get somewhat more than exposure to all the things that grasp the attention of the young focused on media stars, performing celebrities and the latest trends in fashion, when they are consistently and closely bombarded with advertisements by food and beverage manufacturers who pay the online freight for their 'free' access to those social media sites.

Within a ten-minute session on line the number of ads directed at children has appalled the researchers, for their prevalence and in-your-face boldness. For the backbone of their project, the researchers recruited just over a hundred children and teens living in Ottawa between the ages of seven and 15 from four community centres. Instructed to make use of their own smartphone or tablet in accessing favourite social media sites for two periods lasting five minutes each, the study began.

Wearing special eyeglasses to capture what the recruits viewed on line -- later reviewed by the researchers -- each of the participants saw 2.1 ads within each ten-minute snapshot. Young social media users, it was calculated from that base figure, would be exposed to over a dozen food and beverage offerings each hour online. The researchers identified fully 90 percent of the products the ads promoted fell heavily into an unhealthy category. As for example:

A 'unicorn frappuccino' cake made by Rosanna Pansino on a Starbucks theme on YouTube;
A 'memory test' on YouTube revolving around the brand logos of corporations like Burger King and Snickers;
The YTV actress Torri Webster's Instagram account promoting points collections at Cineplex Theatres to exchange for concession snacks;
An Instagram ad for McDonald's inviting users to list which friend they would share french fries with: "The #holidays are for sharing and so are our fries."

Video bloggers posting items on YouTube, points out Dr. Potvin Kent, become media personalities with those collecting large followings signing sponsorship deals to feature branded products "embedded" in their content like competitive eater Matt Stonie's celebrity status garnering profit via "food challenges".

A report from the Heart and Stroke foundation recommends curtailing advertising of unhealthy food to children. Photo: Jaclyn McRae-Sadik.

Children, studies confirm, through such exposure by age two can appreciate and identify brands. It takes an growing awareness by the age of six for children to understand that advertising represents a sales pitch, but it takes until age 11 or 12 before they begin critically evaluating what they see. Until then they follow their favourite products on social media, encouraging their friends to do so as well.

At the present time, food and beverage marketing to children remains self-regulated through the voluntary Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. Through purely voluntary adherence to the regulatory guidelines companies pledge exclusive advertising of "healthier" products to children under age twelve. Yet through what is seen as lenient nutrition criteria and high audience thresholds of 35 percent children in the audience, the pledge is honoured more in the breach than reality.

The very day that Bill S-228 seeking to amend the Food and Drugs Act to prohibit food and beverage marketing directed at children thirteen and under, was being debated in Parliament, was the day the new study on children and advertising for food and beverages was released. Should the bill become law, Health Canada would be tasked with creating regulations to fit the bill.

The fact that childhood obesity has doubled since the 1970s in Canada and overweight and obese children become at risk of chronic conditions such as sleep apnea, joint problems, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease represents a spur that prompted Nancy Greene Raine, Canadian skier who won World Cup and Olympic gold in giant slalom in 1968, to sponsor the bill.

In Quebec, the provincial Consumer Protection Act prohibits commercial advertising targeting children under age 13. Chile announced tough marketing restrictions last February, inclusive of removing cartoon characters from cereal boxes and banning candy sales such as Kinder Surprise using trinkets to snare children's attention.