Ask Your Students to Watch One Hour of Saturday Morning Cartoons, Counting the Number Of

Ask your students to watch one hour of Saturday morning cartoons, counting the number of commercials and making note of how many of them are for food. How many are advertisements for cereals and how many are for 'junk food'? Ask the students to note the time of year as well. Around Christmastime there will be more toy commercials than food commercials. Teach the students to create graphs using these statistics.

Have students make lists of misleading phrases or "weasel words" which are used frequently in food commercials – such as "part of a complete breakfast". (Take a look at the Watching for Weasel Words handout from the Prime Time Parent Kit)

 An idea from Buy Me That 3! A Kid's Guide to Food Advertising is a "taste test." Are your students influenced by taste or by advertising? Have your students conduct their own "Brand Name" face-off. Taste tests can include popular foods and drinks such as soft drinks, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate milk mixes, french fries–just be sure to include cheaper, generic brands along with the assorted name brands.

Athletes/Celebrities

You may have seen Pepsi’s Web site, which features pop-singer Beyonce and Cubs baseball player Sammy Sosa. Beyonce is quoted as saying “For me, to build a relationship with Pepsi is incredible,” while the site says about Sosa, ” For the past three seasons, Slammin’ Sammy has been powered by Pepsi.”

This is just one example of a company using celebrities and athletes to promote a less-than-nutritious product. Pepsi is certainly not the only company to do so. Snickers brand candy bar has a TV commercial that takes place in the Chicago Bears locker room and Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes cereal is touted as “The official cereal of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Many children see celebrities and athletes as role models and feel that the products they endorse are worthwhile. They listen to these messages because they like the messengers. Unfortunately, the underlying message to kids--aside from the more obvious “buy this product”--is that eating these products can make them a celebrity or athlete, or at least will make them look and perform like one. And even if that doesn’t happen, they still feel that the products are worthwhile since they’re popular among the people they look up to and respect.

Saturday Morning Commercials

Saturday morning cartoons are a tradition for many children. Not surprisingly, junk food marketers have claimed their space among the cartoons--90 percent of food commercials aired on Saturday morning kids' TV shows are for products of low nutritional value such as sugary cereals, candy and fast food. As though placing the ads among children’s cartoons is not enough, many of the junk foods will even feature a cartoon character or cartoon theme as part of their packaging and promotional angle.

By the time you head to the grocery store that afternoon, your child’s mind will be thoroughly saturated with junk food items to persuade you to buy. Of course this is the time when you as the parent can be strong and only buy foods that you will feel good about your child eating.

School Vending Machines

You may send your child to school with a healthy lunch in hand, but your efforts may soon be sabotaged by junk food marketers where you least expect them--in your child’s school. Most school hallways are lined with vending machines that sell soft drinks and unhealthy snacks, and most school cafeterias serve any number of fast foods each day. It’s not uncommon for schools to make marketing deals with leading soft drink companies such as Coca-Cola from which they receive commissions--based on a percentage of sales at each school--and sometimes a lump-sum payment.

The revenues are used for various academic and after-school activities, but what activity could be worth devastating the students’ health, which is exactly what consuming all that soda and junk food is doing? Getting rid of vending machines in schools--or replacing their contents with pure water and healthy snacks--could make a big difference, as vending machines can increase the consumption of sweetened beverages by up to 50 or more cans of soda per student per year.

The Internet

More and more children have access to the Internet, which means that marketers have gained another avenue to market their products. Almost every major junk food, from snacks to candy to soft drinks, has its own promotional Web site. The sites typically cater to children and teenagers and are filled with interactive games featuring the product, giveaways, contests and other information about the product.

Kids are likely to be drawn in by the games and are subtly inundated with images of a particular junk food or junk food brand. Although they may think they are simply playing a game, the games typically have a junk-food theme that exposes them to nutritionally devoid products even during their time off.

Although you can’t realistically shelter your child from every advertisement out there, you can sit down with them and discuss the ads you do see. Explain to them that a business is selling the product and that they need to think about all aspects of the item (nutritional value, price, etc.) and not rely solely on the ad to make their decision. And, make sure that you are a good role model for you child. If you eat a lot of junk food, you’ll have a hard time convincing your child that they shouldn’t eat it.

Food Ad Secrets

The foods we see pictured in magazine ads and on television look soooooo mouthwatering and irresistible. Want to know some secrets of food stylists?

 Burgers: rubbed with Vaseline or vegetable oil to give them a juicy shine.  Fried chicken legs: often plumped by injecting some mashed potatoes under the skin to smooth out hollow spots.  Breakfast cereal: topped with hair tonic; the oily white liquid doesn't soak into cereal like milk does.  Pie crust: sprinkled with cinnamon or dry mustard for "browning," plus some Vaseline to make it shiny.  Ice cream: the real stuff would melt under hot camera lights, so food stylists often use a scoopful of vegetable shortening mixed with corn syrup and confectioner's sugar.  Sandwiches: each slice of meat is brushed with oil or Vaseline to give it a moist glow; cold cuts are often folded neatly and glued into place; plastic wrap lies under and behind lettuce leaves and tomatoes to keep them from drying out or making the bun soggy; lettuce leaves and sandwich layers are often propped up with small wads of paper towels.  Fruit: athlete's foot spray is used on nectarines if an ad needs a fresh, fuzzy looking peach.

Think there ought to be a truth in advertising law? There is. But the law requires only that the food that's being advertised be real