Alfawzan3 Abdulelah Alfawzan Dr, Mackin English 1020 November 20 2014 Food Advertising and Marketing Teenagers have been considered a major market force by the food and beverage industry in United States of America. Teenagers are becoming the sphere of influence for marketers because of their nature of expenditure, spending power, and their purchasing influence. Food marketers know that the youth have equal if not more spending power than adults. The teen hold purchasing influence and have the potential to be life long consumers. Food and beverage industry in the US has, increased the amount of advertising that aggressively and intensively target the youth trough multiple channels. Marketing efforts are now targeted towards teenagers. There are quit a number of channels that have been used to reach the youth in order to create awareness and teach them about new products in market. These channels include televisions, internet, brand logos on toys and products, in school marketing, kids club, product placement, promotions targeting the youth among others (Almas, 2012). Products predominantly high in sugar and fat have increasingly been advertised and this has had a major health epidemic in the US. Such advertisements are slowly moving from television into the classroom. New creative techniques are being explored by marketing companies to reach the target audience, the youth through promotions, incentive programs, and contests. This has resulted into the government of United States placing regulations on how much advertisements should be allowed during children programming. Miguel Carriquiry and Bruce Babcock who represent considerable authority in moral hypothesis. They concentrate on life science issues: farming, creatures, and biotechnology For proper and effective child development and growth, nutrition is very important. Eating habits that are acquired during childhood always track into adulthood. This can contribute to long term chronic diseases risk. Multiple research has shown that the dietary intake pattern of teenagers in USA does not meet the national dietary goals; and are very poor. Many teenagers are eating foods away from home. The common foods taken away from home include soft drinks and frequent snacks. This has to more calories obtained from fat and added sugar. This has portrayed a shift over the past few decades. Snacking and constant use of soft drinks has led to childhood overweight and growing epidemic. This has resulted to increasing acquisition of obesity among the children and adolescents in the US. Childhood overweight and obesity is now a major health concern in the US. More than 15 percent of the youth and children in the US are overweight. This is twice the number of prevalence in 1980s. The situation has led to hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular risk factor. the American Academy of Pediatrics have reported that teens who view fast food advertisements are at a higher risk of becoming overweight th.

1. Alfawzan3
Abdulelah Alfawzan
Dr, Mackin
English 1020
November 20 2014
Food Advertising and Marketing
Teenagers have been considered a major market force by the
food and beverage industry in United States of America.
Teenagers are becoming the sphere of influence for marketers
because of their nature of expenditure, spending power, and
their purchasing influence. Food marketers know that the youth
have equal if not more spending power than adults. The teen
hold purchasing influence and have the potential to be life long
consumers. Food and beverage industry in the US has, increased
the amount of advertising that aggressively and intensively
target the youth trough multiple channels. Marketing efforts are
now targeted towards teenagers. There are quit a number of
channels that have been used to reach the youth in order to
create awareness and teach them about new products in market.
These channels include televisions, internet, brand logos on
toys and products, in school marketing, kids club, product
placement, promotions targeting the youth among others
(Almas, 2012). Products predominantly high in sugar and fat
have increasingly been advertised and this has had a major
health epidemic in the US. Such advertisements are slowly
moving from television into the classroom. New creative
techniques are being explored by marketing companies to reach
the target audience, the youth through promotions, incentive
programs, and contests. This has resulted into the government
of United States placing regulations on how much
advertisements should be allowed during children programming.
Miguel Carriquiry and Bruce Babcock who represent
considerable authority in moral hypothesis. They concentrate on

2. life science issues: farming, creatures, and biotechnology For
proper and effective child development and growth, nutrition is
very important. Eating habits that are acquired during childhood
always track into adulthood. This can contribute to long term
chronic diseases risk. Multiple research has shown that the
dietary intake pattern of teenagers in USA does not meet the
national dietary goals; and are very poor. Many teenagers are
eating foods away from home. The common foods taken away
from home include soft drinks and frequent snacks. This has to
more calories obtained from fat and added sugar. This has
portrayed a shift over the past few decades. Snacking and
constant use of soft drinks has led to childhood overweight and
growing epidemic. This has resulted to increasing acquisition of
obesity among the children and adolescents in the US.
Childhood overweight and obesity is now a major health
concern in the US. More than 15 percent of the youth and
children in the US are overweight. This is twice the number of
prevalence in 1980s. The situation has led to hypertension,
hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular risk factor. the American
Academy of Pediatrics have reported that teens who view fast
food advertisements are at a higher risk of becoming overweight
than those who do not. According to this academy, a higher
percentage of obese and overweight youth identified with fast
food advertisements. Youth familiar with food advertisements
are more than twice as likely as those who are less familiar to
consume high calorie food brands. This research aims at
marketing channels and food advertisement channels that target
teenagers in United States of America. The research also
examines the impact of these advertisements on eating behavior
(Miguel & Babcock, 2007).
There are very many factors that influence the food choices and
eating behavior in the US. Food Advertisements is a major
factor and contributor. Many advertisements have over the past
years targeted the youth and children in the US. This is because
they spend billions of their own dollars on food like snacks and
soft drinks away from home and they are future adult

3. consumers. Today we all live in a media saturated environment
and approximately 140 billion dollars are spent by the
adolescents and youth in the US annually. The children who are
under the age of 12 years spent approximately 25 billion dollars
and may also influence 200 billion dollars worth of expenditure
annually.
Gary Comstockis professor of philosophy at North Carolina
State University where he conducts research on ethical
questions in the biological sciences. Comstock discusses the
ethical issues that raised in the food industry. The US food
supply and marketing is heavily dependent on advertisements.
The US food system is considered the second largest advertiser
in the American economy with the first being the automotive
industry. The food system advertises through billboards,
televisions, newspapers, and radio among others. Food
advertisement market is very large in the US because food
captures a significant percentage of consumers spending
especially with teenagers. Consumer views also tend to change
very quickly because food is a repeat purchase item. Preference
always begins before purchase behavior does. Marketing is
heavily channeled towards the teenagers and is because of the
desire to create brand preference and creation of awareness.
There are two major factors that tend to relate to preference; the
parents liking of a specific brand and the positive experience
with the brand on the side of the children. The marketers knows
very well that child’s first request for purchase is always at the
supermarket at approximately 2 years of age and children have
great purchase influence (Comstock, 2010).
Researches have shown that there is a strong connection
between teen’s eating habit and fast food commercials. Teens
who spend more than two hours watching commercial TV are
prone to unhealthy foods like fast foods, snacks and sugary
drinks than those who do not. There is increased consumption of
fast foods as a result internet advertisements.
The teenagers are reached through marketing channels and

4. these channels also influence the food product purchase
behavior. As mentioned earlier, the techniques and channels
include television advertisements, internet, in-school marketing,
and kid’s club among others. The following are the channels
used to market food and food related products to the youth.
In-school marketing is driven by the desire to generate
product loyalty and increase sales. The use of public schools as
a marketing venue has been on the rise in the past decade. The
activities related to food and beverage in in-school marketing is
sales of the products, advertisements made directly to the
students, indirect advertisements, undertaking of marketing
research with children.
Television is the largest single source media message to the
youth and young children. The US food manufacturers and fast
food restaurants allocate over 75% of their advertisements
budgets to television. These because television viewing starts at
an early age and the children have at least 2 hours of watching
televisions everyday. The teenagers in low income minority set
up tend to watch more television and they have the greater
exposure to food advertisements. To the teens, the television is
the largest source of food advertisements. According to a PLOS
ONE research, McDonald and Burger King have a share of 70
percent and 29 percent respectively of 92 quick service
restaurant meal advertisements on TV. TV watching is not the
chief cause of obesity but rather the fast food commercial and
this is a clear implication that fast food commercials greatly
influence teen’s eating habits. This is because food is the most
advertised item on the television.
These are standard marketing programs with names implying
that they are clubs. They are developed by corporations with the
aim of communicating and maintain existing relationships with
the children. The members benefit from membership cards,
direct mailings, holiday greetings, newsletters among others.
(Comstock, 2010)
Brand awareness and preference starts at an early age with
some companies marketing toys and products with brand logos

5. to young children and preschoolers, this is done in order to
develop and maintain positive relationships with children and
promote awareness at an early age.
Online advertisements and promotions have increased
considerably in the past decade. Online as a media of
advertisement plays a key role in the lives of US children and
teenagers. Many children have access to fast internet in the US
making online advertisements very effective and efficient. The
teen’s spend almost half of their day on the interne and the
internet has become an intrinsic part of the teen’s daily life. The
fast food manufacturers on the other hand arte taking advantage
of this and are targeting teenagers with food commercials. The
advertisers are continually targeting children, teens, black and
Hispanic youth. This is according to the Yule Ruud Center for
Food and Policy Obesity. An example is McDonald’s
365Black.com which is a website created to target minority
groups. Another website from McDonald that targets Latino
youth that are four times more likely to visit the site, is
MeEncanta.com. Early, Ralph is professor of food industry
and Head of Department of Food Science and Agri-Food Supply
Chain Management He concentrate on the decision making tool
for the food industryThe youth and children have been the
sphere of influence of marketers in the recent years. Food
advertisers target greatly adolescents and children through a
wide range of channels. The main goal of advertisements and
marketing targeted to children is to create awareness, brand
preference, loyalty, and food purchases by the youth. The
advertisers have worked hard enough and managed to convince
a large population of children and the youth into buying food
and related products. This has contributed to the growing
epidemic of childhood obesity and other food related
sicknesses. I believe that marketing has a hand to play in
influencing children and adolescent eating behavior and also
body weight. However extensive research is still required to
determine whether food marketing and advertisements

6. contribute to increased risk of obesity and overweight among
the adolescent and children (Early, 2006)
.
Reference
Almas, Reidar. "Food Trust, Ethics and Safety in Risk Society."
(2012).
Carriquiry, Miguel, and Bruce A. Babcock. "Reputations,
market structure, and the choice of quality assurance systems in
the food industry." American Journal of Agricultural
Economics 89.1 (2007): 12-23.
Comstock, Gary. "Ethics and genetically modified foods." Food
Ethics. Springer New York, 2010. 49-66.
Early, Ralph. "Food ethics: a decision making tool for the food
industry?." International journal of food science &
technology 37.4 (2006): 339-349.
Hobbs, B. C. (2008). Food poisoning and food hygiene. Food
poisoning and food hygiene, (Edn 2).
Royle, Tony. "Realism or idealism? Corporate social
responsibility and the employee stakeholder in the global
fast‐food industry." Business Ethics: A European Review 14.1
(2005): 42-55.