Children's Food Advertising

In the today’s world of consumerism, children have become a major asset to consumers and producers now have a greater impact on the health and attitudes of their juvenile customers. Professor of Sociology, Juliet B. Schor, and undergraduate sociology major, Margaret Ford, in their article, “From Tastes Great to Cool: Children’s Food Marketing and the Rise of the Symbolic,” analyze food marketing strategies on the lives of youth. After conducting research and studying, Schor and Ford concluded that the food industry’s advertising is a major cause of unhealthy lifestyles of children. Schor and Ford’s purpose is to educate readers about the harmful impact of food advertising on young consumers. As the title suggests, food marketing impacts
Advertising has changed from being honest, concrete, simple, and informative to expensive, symbolic, and appealing to counter-culture. In early decades, commercials conveyed intrinsic benefits of the products. Due to the rise of a mass consumer society, advertisers in the 1950s and 1960s, or the creative revolution, began to advertise more symbolic and cultural-driven values by stressing the “cool” image they want their products to convey (Nike represents power and athleticism). Ford and Schor suggest that symbolic marketing of food persuades children to eat particular foods because of it affects their social identity not because of tastefulness or healthfulness. Ford and Schor believe that the youth’s desire to be “cool” and the segregation of adults from children prompts junk food producers to utilize an “anti-adult” message in their ads. Ford and Schor juxtapose junk food with drugs to address the symbolic relationship of adults and children; junk food contains high amounts of sugar that make children hyper and a nuisance to parents. Schor and Ford also define the relationship between tobacco and junk food to prove that junk food marketers have cynical
They establish a factual tone by referencing expert studies in order to prove their argument- food marketing has a negative effect on the health of children. In the article, the construction of sentences are constant and sentence lengths are long because they interpret studies and statistics Ford and Schor want readers to get a better understanding on how the attitudes of children are easily influenced by marketers. The style of their writing educates the reader about psychology and advertising. The growing influence of marketing on juvenile consumers encouraged Schor and Ford to analyze the impacts of food advertising strategies on the health of children. Schor and Ford execute their argument by demonstrating the decline of healthfulness as junk food advertising