The above advert shows a child who is taking hamburger and juice. The advert serves as a discouragement for the children who consume junk food. The junk food as it appears is that they are fatty which in the end have adverse effects on the child’s health.
The social class, which the above advert appeals to mostly, is the middle and upper class i.e. those who are able to work and purchase such foods like the ones the child is taking. These people stay in the rich suburbs of the town centre has and are used to junk food, which is evident that it destroys the child. The culture portrayed by the advert is the one defending the status quo on the use of junk food as being heath and has no side effects. These classes of people have the belief that the best food for a child is fatty foods, which in most cases are unhealthy and are life-destroying foods, but that is not the case (Charles & Glantz, 2006).
A new research has shown that since, 1980, the overweight-related complications have doubled among the children below 10 years, and tripled among the adolescents. This has adversely affected the life span of the young generation, and this is required to debris foods. The junk food is common among children. They are characterized by the high amount of calories, fats, and sugars. These junk foods include sodas, juices, fast food, packaged snack foods, and desserts. The advertisement on the junk food to children not only affects part of their life that it will be a predisposition to later stages in life (Apman & Supramaniam, 2006).
The consumer needs to have and maintain a strong health for the child. It is clear from the advert that if the child continues with the intake of junk food, then his or her health will be compromised. The above advert tries to portray that the junk food the child is taking makes the child healthy. These, in the real sense do not amount to trustworthy health of the child but ruins his/her life (Charles & Glantz, 2006).
The marketers in their strategies are primarily targeting the children. In the media, most of the food commercials target the young children, especially in the junk food. Marketing will undoubtedly change the children to develop a cogent urge towards the advertised junk food. The marketers believe that children are the potential and ready market for the children. The marketers in most cases use luring talks to children that the junk food is for fun. In the real sense, wholesome food for kids is the same to those of adults. In other words, the food companies need to make money as they produce unhealthy food and do not treat children dietary needs.
The advert tries to expound the limitations of using junk food, but it is not effective. This is because there is no relationship of the child’s deleterious health and the food intake. In fact, some may mistake the child as developing successfully and exposing their children to such foods. The child on the advert shows that he/she is well healthwise, which may not be the case. Many parents have fallen victims of such adverts i.e. they go and buy more junk foods to their kids. These parents in the long end discover the adverts were just and it had negative effects on the health of the child (McNeal, 1987).
Irony has been used in the above advert. The child is taking too much than he is supposed to take. By looking at the advert, one wonders whether the child cleared all the food around him or not. In addition, from the available statistics we know that junk foods have tremendous effects on the life of a child. The advert is eye- appealing as it shows a child who is healthy. We know that the food he/she is taking is unhealthy, which is ironical (Charles & Glantz, 2006).
I will not recommend the above advert as it not up to standards of advertisement ethics. This is because the advert is not catchy enough. In advertising for slimming foods, for instance, a more aggressive form of advertisement needs to be chosen because of the need to appeal to an individual. The above advert should have been used to advertise healthier, less sugary foods, which have no side effects to young children. If, the advert is used to advertise these kinds of foods, healthy complications associated with junk food will be minimized. Products, which would be appropriate for this approach, would be those, which appeal to ‘lifestyle’ and ‘status’ (McNeal, 1987).
References
Apman, K., Nicholas, S. & Supramaniam, R. (2006). Much food advertising is there on
Australian television. Health Promotion International. New York, NY, Oxford
Worth, A., & Glantz, S. A. (2006). Tobacco and the movie industry. Clinics in
Occupational and Environmental Medicine. London, UK, Cambridge press.
McNeal, J. V. (1987). Children as Consumers: Insights and Implications. MA: Lexington
Books.
