Group Says Ads to Kids Sell Poor Health
Dec. 4, 2006 — -- The nation's pediatricians are the latest group to weigh in on the harmful effects of marketing to kids.
With young people viewing an estimated 40,000 ads a year, the American Academy of Pediatrics is alarmed that such exposure may contribute significantly to obesity, poor health and drug use.
The AAP is calling for stricter guidelines on child-targeted advertising -- a move the group believes will help curtail obesity, and cigarette and alcohol use among America's youth.
Commercialism in the classroom was a focus of AAP's policy statement "Children, Adolescents and Advertising," published in today's issue of the journal Pediatrics.
"Advertisers have slowly but steadily infiltrated school systems around the country. The '3 Rs' have now become the '4 Rs,' with the fourth R being retail," the statement read.
The AAP recommends that pediatricians work with parents, schools, community groups and others to ban or severely limit school-based advertising in all forms.
Other recommendations include a ban on cigarette and tobacco ads in all media, including banners and logos in sports arenas. The statement also targets drug makers who advertise erectile dysfunction drugs on daytime and primetime TV. The AAP recommends that advertisers confine ads for erectile dysfunction drugs to after 10 p.m, and suggests these ads may confuse children and teens about human sexuality and make sexual activity seem like a "recreational sport."
With childhood obesity soaring, the Academy wants Congress to implement a ban on "junk food" advertising during programming that is viewed predominantly by young children.
Perhaps no other topic related to the fight against childhood obesity has received more attention lately than the influence of food advertising.
The Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has gone on record saying that food advertising to children may be linked to widening waistlines (Check out the statement: Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity).
The IOM report was the first major analysis of scientific evidence demonstrating that food and beverage ads directed at children leads them to choose high-calorie, low-nutrient products, which may "put kids' long-term health at risk."
Since then, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has issued Guidelines for Responsible Food Marketing to Children, and the Federal Trade Commission is beginning to investigate how food and beverage manufacturers market to children.
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