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And in India?
While exact figures are not available, the scenario is almost
identical. Parag Paul Choudhury of Voluntary Organisation in
Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE), a Delhi-based NGO, traces
the track record of the Indian advertising industry. It focussed on
women who were at home during the early 1960s and 70s. Then it
shifted attention to the ‘youth’ population, and finally focussed on
the children. And its interest in this category of consumers has not
flagged since. It’s not difficult to figure out the reason. “Today
84 per cent of Indian parents take their children along to purchase
goods which are not even child-products, simply because they have a
big say in buying decisions,” says Chaudhury. (Remember the car
commercial where two kids compare whose daddy has the bigger car?)
Couch potatoes or
sitting ducks?
So, targetting children is an immensely profitable short term and
long term investment for the companies. Children now have money to
spend, influence family purchases, and are future customers. A sort
of cradle-to-grave market, say experts.
 No wonder commercials are flowing in fast and
furious. All kinds of consumer items are vying with each other to
occupy larger ad space—to appear more alluring than their
competitors. But I don’t have enough space here to talk about all of
them. So I will focus on one particular category.
Food ads. Not
because they are among the most visible ones, but because they have
a direct impact on our health. Now what could be more important than
that..right?.
So do you want to know just how intense this food
campaign is? Read on…
A junk food advertising audit conducted by the
Australian Divisions of General Practice National Youth Alliance in
January 2003 analysed 50 hours of child targetted TV on commercial
stations. The audit found that during children’s TV programmes there
was an average of one junk food (food high in fat, sugar and/or salt
with little nutritional value) advertisement per ad break and in
some cases three per ad break.
According to a paper published by the Prevention
Institute for the Centre for Health Improvement, children in the
United States spend more time watching television than they spend on
any other single daily activity except sleeping. And what do they
watch? Commercials, of course, and primarily those of delectable
looking high-fat, high-calorie food! In an assessment of food
advertising during Saturday morning children’s programming, 52.5
hours of viewing netted 564 food advertisements, comprising more
than half of all advertisements. Of these ads, 246 (43.6%) fell
into the fats, oils, and sweets group, promoting foods such as
candy, soft drinks, chocolates and pastries. As if this was not
enough, fast-food restaurant commercials also took up substantial
air time—nearly 11 per cent of total advertisements. Interestingly,
there were no advertisements for fruits or vegetables
Now let’s consider how this blitz of ads has affected the target
group—the children.
Today, around 17.6 million children younger than
five are estimated to be overweight, worldwide.
Obesity is the most prevalent disease among children
and young adults in the US, and health experts believe that constant
promotion of high-calorie food is the prime force driving this
raging epidemic.
 The UK government is seriously considering banning
fast food ads during children’s programmes, after a House of Commons
health committee report revealed that obesity in the country has
risen by 400 per cent in the past 25 years, in the country.
In Australia, over the past 20 years, there has been
a 2.5-fold rise in number of obese people identified in its major
cities. The country also has one of the highest rates of type 2
diabetes in children in the developed world.
There is really no room for any doubt, any more. The
World Health Organisation (WHO) declares that studies and research
conducted by various agencies in different parts of the world have
come to the same conclusion. That each additional can of soft drink
that a child consumes increases her risk of becoming obese by 60 per
cent!
Is Aparajita listening?
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