Center on Media and Child Health

New Guidelines to Reduce Soft Drink Marketing to Children

On Tuesday, the International Council of Beverages Associations, the worldwide trade association representing the non-alcoholic beverage industry, adopted new guidelines on marketing to children.

Beverage companies can voluntarily agree to the guidelines, which eliminate advertising to audiences that are primarily composed of children under 12. The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo both pledged to meet the new guidelines by the end of 2008. Disney adopted similar standards in 2006.

McDonald's: They're Lovin It

Robinson, Borzekowski, Matheson, and Kraemer performed a study to see whether children's tastes were influenced by heavily marketed brands.  Over 60 preschool children tasted 5 pairs of identical food items.  In each pair, one item was packaged with the McDonald's logo, and one item was in unbranded packaging.  The children were asked whether the foods tasted the same or if one tasted better. 

The results of the study showed that overall, "children preferred the tastes of foods and drinks if they thought they were from McDonald’s."  Analysis of the results showed that children who  had TV sets in their houses and children who ate McDonald's food more often were more likely to say the McDonald's food tasted better than it's identical counterpart. 

The authors conclude that a food's branding influences young children's ideas of taste and that perhaps this idea could be used to encourage children eat more nutritious food.   

You Can't Skip *These* Ads

You thought you were saved from marketing schemes because you skip commercials with TiVo, hop from one radio station to another, or opt for books instead?  Think again. When technological change allows users to avoid one kind of ad, marketers change the shape of advertising so you can no longer avoid it.  Here are some examples:

• Radio:  Since the introduction of satellite radio, consumers have many more choices of stations to listen to, meaning that when a song ends and advertising begins, they just flip channels.  In order to prevent people from changing stations, advertisers invented the "adlet" -- a 5 second commercial that runs between songs.
• Television:  With the advent of TiVo and other DVR services, consumers are likely to fast-forward through TV ads.  Advertisers have tried a number of ways to make sure that consumers see their products such as inserting very short ads right before the show, staging ads that look like the show itself, creating very long ads that look like regular commercials when viewed in fast-forward, and embedding coupons in commercials so that user rewinds to catch the promotion.
• Books:  Advertisers have even slipped ads into books. Last year, Cathy’s Book came complete with product placement from Proctor & Gamble. The authors assert that the manuscript was written before the deal was struck, but some groups fear that it is just another ploy to get teens to buy CoverGirl and Tampax products.

It seems that the more consumers try to avoid commercials, the more creative the advertising industry gets!

Shrek Hypocrisy Featured on The Colbert Report

Lovable cartoon movie-star Shrek is currently a spokesperson (spokes-ogre?) for the Department of Health and Human Services' "Go Out and Play" campaign aimed at getting kids active to prevent obesity. 

Meanwhile, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has conducted a review of other Shrek promotions and found that Shrek is also promoting over 70 different junk food products. 

This tale of hypocrisy made it all the way to The Colbert Report:

See research on food advertising from the CMCH Database of Research.

Food for Thought: Is America Advertising Bad Health?

Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation released the largest study ever conducted of TV food advertising to children. Their findings include:

• Half of all ads shown during children's shows are for food, the top product seen by children.
• 34% of all food ads targeting youth are for candy or snacks.
• Of the 8,854 ads reviewed in the study, there were none for fruits or vegetables aimed at children or teens.
• Roughly one in five food ads targeting children includes promotion of a website; the same number include the offer of a premium, such as a game or toy.

"Children of all ages see thousands of food ads a year, but tweens see more than any other age group," said Vicky Rideout of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Since tweens are at an age where they’re just becoming independent consumers, understanding what type of advertising they are exposed to is especially important."

For more information about the relationship between food advertising and overweight, we recommend the following recent articles:

• Chamberlain, LJ. et al. (2006) "Does children's screen time predict requests for advertised products? Cross-sectional and prospective analyses." Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
• Lobstein, T. and Dibb, S. (2005) "Evidence of a possible link between obesogenic food advertising and child overweight." Obesity Reviews.

The Early Sexualization of Girls

Anyone who has seen the minuscule outfits sported by Bratz dolls or watched a music video lately can tell you that young women and girls are increasingly being portrayed as sex objects.  Today, the American Psychological Association released a report on the sexualization of girls and women in advertising, merchandising, and media.  Their review of research shows consequences in a number of areas:

• Cognitive and Emotional Health: Sexualized images can cause people to be uncomfortable with their own bodies, leading to anxiety and shame.
• Mental and Physical Health:  Eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression have all been linked to sexualization in the media. 
• Sexual Development:  Girls may have trouble developing a healthy sexual self-image if all they see in the media are unhealthy sexual behaviors.

Read more about the report:

• USA Today article
• APA Press Release
• Full Report
• What Parents Can Do

Public Service Announcements: By Teens, For Teens

Today I heard about two organizations that offered teens a chance to engage in media production by creating Public Service Announcements (PSA's).  Just as writing skills are a key element in print literacy, media production is essential for enhancing media literacy.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy held a contest for young filmmakers, resulting in PSA's for their campaign "Sex Has Consequences." 

• See Baby Talk PSA
• See Smooth Talker PSA
• See other PSA's in this campaign

Another organization offering teen-produced media is Scenarios USA.  This group asked teens to write about issues such as peer pressure, body image, and commitment, then turned their stories into short films produced by some of Hollywood's finest filmmakers (including the directors of Sex and the City, Wag the Dog, and Meet the Parents).

New Sponsorship for Sesame Street

This month begins a new sponsorship deal between New Balance and Sesame Street, where the company will aim to advertise kids' sneakers to moms of preschoolers.  New Balance is the 5th sponsor to sign on with the show in order to offset "rising production costs and federal funding challenges." 

Producers are careful not to allow sponsorship to turn into over-commercialization or product placement during the show itself, but ad campaigns will be launched on the Sesame Street website, as well as in its magazine and newsletters. 

Hollywood Company Agrees to Anti-smoking Ads Before Movies

In September, the Attorneys General of 41 states sent a letter to Hollywood's 13 major movie studios asking them to include anti-smoking public service announcements (PSA's) before any movie containing smoking.  The Weinstein Company is the first to take action on this letter, agreeing to insert a truth campaign PSA into its upcoming DVD release of Clerks 2. 

The letter to Hollywood made reference to research by Cornelia Pechmann who found that watching an anti-smoking ad before movies with smoking seemed to "inoculate" viewers and make them less attracted to smoking behavior. 

Studies on the truth campaign have found that the ads are effective in encouraging non-smoking among youth.

Product Placement in Games, Music and Books

Some people estimate that product placement started in the 1930s with movie directors filming in their favorite restaurants; others estimate it all really began with the promotion of Reese's Pieces in the beloved film, ET.  In either case, we've seen it done in movies and television for years now and with more and more people using TiVo and other DVR technology to skip commercials, it was only a matter of time before video games, music and books became popular outlets for advertising.  Here are some notes on each category:

Video Games

• CMCH Researcher David Bickham's earliest video game product placement memory was of a British Knights (shoes) "billboard" in the background of basketball game Arch Rival from 1990.
• These days, not only are the graphics more advanced (thus able to translate logos and branding better), but Electronic Arts, a leading video game publisher, has just announced a new in-game ad technology.  Now, ads can be updated by advertisers through the Internet, allowing them to rotate messages within ad campaigns or between different products.

Music

• More and more there are products mentioned in Top 40 Songs.  The Black Eyed Peas' lyrics are full of product mentions; fashion companies Fendi, Donna Karan, Dolce & Gabbana, and Seven Jeans are all mentioned in the first verse of My Humps; and Grey Goose (vodka) appears in Fergie's latest song, London Bridge. 
• In 2002, Pass the Courvoisier by Busta Rhymes even had the product right there in the title!  This mention instantly boosted Courvoisier sales in the US and in Europe while bringing a drink previously associated with an older, wealthy and white generation of men into a younger urban culture.

Books

• The latest example of product placement is Cathy's Book, where Procter & Gamble made a deal with authors to include various Cover Girl products in the book in exchange for promotion on its teen girl website.
• Product placement in books is occuring not only on the pages between the covers, but in fact, on the covers themselves and even in the titles! Recent titles in the "chick-lit" genre: The Devil Wears Prada, The Bulgari Connection, and The Bergdorf Blondes.

In writing this post, I came across the website Brandchannel.com, where one feature is to review the product placements in a top-grossing movie each week. 

You can find research on product placement in the CMCH Database of Research.