Television can have a great impact on children, as kids can be easy targets. A new research shows that use of toys and fast food TV commercials can convince children to dine in on those fast food chains.
Marketing experts fairly know that kids are bias on food choices. In exchange for free toys, children are lured to be regular customers of fast food chains. In fact, according to NYC Today, for the last twenty years, fast food chain giant McDonalds has been doing this. It can also be recalled that they were once on hot seat after being criticized of tempting kids with free toys and offering foods high in calories in the kids' menu. Some alterations were made after being pressed by health professionals.
Now, this strategy coincides well with a recent study. A team of researchers from the Geisel School of Medicine revealed that a direct relationship between TV ads and the number of fast food visits.
With the use of a database, all fast food TV ads that aired nationally since 2009 were compiled. The team found that at that time, only two nationally recognized fast food chains, namely, Burger King and McDonalds, employed in child-directed TV advertising. According to lead researcher Dr. Jennifer A. Edmond, seventy nine per cent of those were aired on four children's channels.
The team asked 100 families with children between 3 and 7 years old about their habit of watching TV and going to fast food chains. Results revealed that thirty seven per cent reported frequent visits with child-directed commercials. From here, it can be concluded that the more children watch ads with fast food meals and free toys, the more the families are likely to visit the restaurant.
This finding goes to show that food choices of children are partially influenced by the desire for the toys they see on TV. Dr Edmond offers some advice to parents to "switch their child to commercial-free TV programming to help avoid pestering for foods seen in commercials."
