Fast‐Food Restaurant Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity

Chou, Shin‐Yi; Rashad, Inas; Grossman, Michael

doi:10.1086/590132

Cited by 257 publications

(183 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…the probability that children and adolescents are overweight. This effect seems to be stronger and more significant for girls (Chou et al, 2005). In fact, this influence can be clearly seen as children are more likely to pick up items that are in "Mac Donald's" packaging (Robinson et al, 2007).…”

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 92%

“…One drawback of this study is that it uses a non representative sample (i.e., individuals who volunteered for the study of weight gain prevention). Chou et al (2005) find a strong positive correlation between exposure to fast food restaurant advertising and 11 The literature on the impact of physical activity on obesity is also inconclusive. For instance, Berentzen et al (2008) provide evidence that decreased physical activity in adults does not lead to obesity.…”

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first equation relates the teenager's fast food consumption to his reference group's 4 Another potentially important channel is physical activity (Trogdon et al, 2008). 5 An indirect evidence of the relationship between eating habits and weight gain come from the literature on the (negative) effect of fast food prices on adolescent BMI (see Chou et al, 2005;Powell et al, 2007;Auld and Powell, 2008;Powell and Bao, 2009). See also Cutler et al (2003) which relates the declining relative price of fast food and the increase in fast food restaurant availability over time to increasing obesity in the U.S. 6 We acknowledge that some recent studies have pointed that obesity might be partially due to a virus ad-36 (see Rogers et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Fortin

Yazbeck

2015

Journal of Health Economics

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This paper aims at opening the black box of peer effects in adolescent weight gain. Using Add Health data on secondary schools in the U.S., we investigate whether these effects partly flow through the eating habits channel. Adolescents are assumed to interact through a friendship social network. We first propose a social interaction model of fast food consumption. Our approach allows to control for correlated effects at the network level and to solve the simultaneity (reflection) problem. We exploit results by Bramoullé, Djebbari and Fortin (2009) which show that if there are two agents who are separated by a link of distance 3 within a network (i.e., two adolescents who are not friends but are linked by two friends), peer effects are identified. The model is estimated using maximum likelihood and generalized 2SLS strategies. We also estimate a panel dynamic weight gain production function relating an adolescent's Body Mass Index (BMI) to his current fast food consumption and his lagged BMI level. Results show that there are positive significant peer effects in fast food consumption among adolescents belonging to a same friendship school network. The estimated social multiplier is 1.59. Our results also suggest that, at the network level, an extra day of weekly fast food restaurant visits increases BMI by 2.4%, when peer effects are taken into account.

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Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Previous Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Fortin

Yazbeck

2015

Journal of Health Economics

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“…Unsurprisingly, children often respond by consuming more of the advertised foods (97,98) . This has been linked with the risk of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents (99) . A strong case can be made that society has a responsibility to protect children from TV advertising.…”

Section: Health Promotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic nutrition: a vision for the twenty-first century

Temple

2015

Public Health Nutr.

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It is now widely accepted that poor nutrition plays a major role in the epidemic of various diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes and CVD. There has also been much research regarding the role of related factors such as advertising and food prices. Many intervention studies have been carried out where attempts have been made to persuade people to modify their behaviour, such as by making dietary changes, in order to enhance health (health promotion). There has also been much debate on the potential of government policy as a tool for achieving these goals. Various proposals have been made, such as a tax on sugary drinks, the redirection of food subsidies and how the salt content of food can be reduced. However, the great majority of previous papers have considered only single aspects of the topics discussed here. The present paper reviews strategies for improving public health, both health promotion interventions and the use of government policy approaches. Topics discussed include providing advice for the general population and the design of food guides and food labels. This leads to the conclusion that we need an overall strategy that integrates this diverse body of information and formulates a comprehensive action plan. I propose the term 'strategic nutrition'. The implementation of this plan opens up a path to a major advance in public health.

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“…Since brand bonding is established early in childhood (5) , industries have incentives to target children as early as possible in order to gain competitive advantages in the market. Research has pointed out that children misinterpret commercials as a consequence of their stage of development (6)(7)(8) , and commercials for food products may change preferences and choices regardless of the possible risk to health (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14) . Overweight and obesity rates among German children aged 3-17 years have risen to about 15-18 % (15)(16)(17) , a strongly significant increase over the previous two decades.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Do television food commercials target children in Germany?

Effertz

Wilcke

2011

Public Health Nutr.

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Objective: To examine whether the German food industry directs commercials for unhealthy products to children and whether self-administered voluntary restrictions on the promotion of less healthy foods (the EU Pledge) are effective to mitigate this exposure. Design: By analysing German data from television (TV) channels, advertised products were categorized and food products classified as core foods (healthy) and non-core foods (less healthy). Marketing techniques were documented. Food commercials were furthermore compared with commercials for toy products, and comparisons were made between advertising patterns before and after the EU Pledge. Setting: Data for ten German TV channels were recorded for two weekdays and two weekend days from 06.00 to 22. 9 % of TV commercials were for food products, of which 73 % were for non-core foods, 21 % for core foods and 6 % not classified. In three specified channels widely viewed by children and youth, 14?5 % of commercials were for food products, of which 88?2 % were for non-core foods. Commercials for unhealthy foods were broadcast significantly more often during children's peak viewing and in children's programmes, with a higher use of promotional characters and premiums than found in commercials for non-food products. In 2010, analysis of the three specified channels found that 18?5 % of commercials were for food products, of which 98?2 % were for non-core foods. While the use of premiums decreased compared with other commercials, the use of promotional characters in non-core food commercials increased, especially during children's programmes. Conclusions: Children in Germany are exposed to large numbers of food commercials. The exposure to commercials for non-core foods and the use of techniques attractive to children are widespread and appear to have remained unaffected by the announcement of the EU Pledge in December 2007. We conclude that the industry's voluntary agreement has failed to fulfil its declared purpose.

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Fast‐Food Restaurant Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity

Cited by 257 publications

References 26 publications

Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Peer effects, fast food consumption and adolescent weight gain

Strategic nutrition: a vision for the twenty-first century

Do television food commercials target children in Germany?

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