IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v615y2008i1p133-155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Calories for Sale: Food Marketing to Children in the Twenty-First Century

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Linn

    (Media Center of Judge Baker Children's Center, Harvard Medical School)

  • Courtney L. Novosat

    (Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood in Boston)

Abstract

Budgets for marketing to children have spiked well into the billions, an escalation that mirrors the rise in childhood obesity rates. Children are targets for a maelstrom of marketing for all sorts of products enabled by sophisticated technology and minimal government regulation. Despite the fact that recent studies document links between food advertising and childhood obesity, a significant proportion of marketing that targets children is for energy-dense, low-nutrient food. Moreover, advances in digital technology allow marketers to find more direct, personalized gateways to reach young audiences that sidestep parental authority and bank as much on the unknowing parent as the gullible child. Cataloguing the depth and breadth of child-centered food marketing while discussing grassroots strategies for instituting change, the authors argue that parents can no longer keep pace either with innovations in advertising or increased spending, suggesting the need for more stringent government regulations on food marketing to children.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Linn & Courtney L. Novosat, 2008. "Calories for Sale: Food Marketing to Children in the Twenty-First Century," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 615(1), pages 133-155, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:615:y:2008:i:1:p:133-155
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716207308487
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716207308487
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716207308487?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Harrison, K. & Marske, A.L., 2005. "Nutritional content of foods advertised during the television programs children watch most," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(9), pages 1568-1574.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Landwehr, Stefanie C. & Hartmann, Monika, 2020. "Industry self-regulation of food advertisement to children: Compliance versus effectiveness of the EU Pledge," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Amy B. Jordan & Thomas N. Robinson, 2008. "Children, Television Viewing, and Weight Status: Summary and Recommendations from an Expert Panel Meeting," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 615(1), pages 119-132, January.
    3. Pavleen Kaur, 2011. "Need for Parental Control and Mediation in Food Advertising to Children: A Review of Previous Research," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 3(3), pages 171-177.
    4. Phoebe R. Ruggles & Jacob E. Thomas & Natalie S. Poulos & Keryn E. Pasch, 2023. "School-Level Socioeconomic Status and Nutrient Content of Outdoor Food/Beverage Advertisements," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(18), pages 1-12, September.
    5. Cash, Sean B. & McAlister, Anna R., 2017. "Young Food Consumers: How do Children Respond to Point-of-Purchase Interventions?," 2017 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 6-8, 2017, Chicago, Illinois 252700, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Landwehr, Stefanie C. & Hartmann, Monika, 2016. "Does self regulation work? The case of television food advertisement to children in Germany," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235881, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Gloria Jiménez-Marín & Rodrigo Elías Zambrano & Araceli Galiano-Coronil & Rafael Ravina-Ripoll, 2020. "Food and Beverage Advertising Aimed at Spanish Children Issued through Mobile Devices: A Study from a Social Marketing and Happiness Management Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-20, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:615:y:2008:i:1:p:133-155. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.