Fast Food Advertisements

The power advertisements have to influence decisions and affect people’s lives is astounding. They are meant to be big, bright, and flashy to try and attract people to buy their products. Ads are also impossible to avoid. You cannot walk down the street, watch television, or browse the internet without seeing ads all over the place. The problem with this is that younger people can be too easily swayed by these ads and the results have many negative consequences. These upbeat and catchy commercials are luring kids into the habit of eating unhealthily and this should be prevented. The fast food industry takes advantage of this influence over children and is a large factor in the obesity problem America faces today. Fast food chains give the impression to children that they can and should have everything they want, and include their product as a part of that. Datuk Marimuthu Nadason, president of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations, states “studies have shown that children are likely to pick branded foods because they associate themselves with the advertisements” (Elis 1). Because of this, 51countries self-regulate fast food advertisements, 23 have statutory regulations, and 3 countries have banned them during children’s programs on television. They hold nothing back in advertisements even though what they are promoting is unhealthy and harmful in the long run. If marketers were sincere enough to promote their products, why must they associate the food with toys, cartoon characters, and even free music downloads? Advertisers are not focused on the good of society but on how much profit they can make, and achieve that by trying to influence children to eat as much of their food as possible. The accessibility of these unhealthy food choices creates difficult choices for children to make about their eating habits. Fast food is usually cheaper than eating healthy, and advertisers run rampant with it showing off “Dollar Menus” and value meals that

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