Page 40 - MHF-FeedingMinds-final.indd
P. 40
Marketing and Media Influence on Food Choices 31
●● from higher occupational groups Marketing and Media Influence on
Food Choices
●● with highest educational levels
Eating behaviours and food choices can be strongly
●● aged 30 or over influenced by advertising, food packaging and
presentation of food content.
●● of first babies.
Children are increasingly targeted with
Some families are reluctant to change other infant advertising and marketing. Large sums of money
feeding practices from those handed down by are spent targeting them with food advertising to
previous generations, and certain cultural practices build brand loyalty and persuade them to want a
are at variance with the Department of Health particular food product, starting from when they
infant feeding guidelines and can compromise the are toddlers. Marketing experts know that
nutritional intake of infants. Such practices toddlers and children have considerable
include: purchase influence and successfully negotiate
purchases through ‘nag factor’ or ‘pester power’.
●● women not taking vitamin D supplements during Requests are often for brand name products and
pregnancy and breastfeeding – particularly food accounts for over half of total requests, with
those at higher risk of low vitamin D levels (see parents honouring these requests 50 per cent of
page 65) the time (Story and French 2004). The most
requested item is breakfast cereal, followed by
●● giving water rather than colostrum to newborn snacks, drinks and toys.
babies as colostrum is seen as having a poor
nutritional value or being unhealthy Media messages about food are targeted at
children through:
●● preference for formula feeding rather than
breastfeeding because formula feeding is seen as ●● television advertisements
a Western ideal and therefore assumed to be
better for the baby ●● radio advertisements
●● herbal teas given during infancy as they are ●● internet
deemed to have health benefits
●● in-store displays
●● boiled water and barley water given to infants as
‘cooling’ drinks to balance breast milk which is ●● child-friendly packaging, including familiar
seen as a ‘hot’ food cartoon characters on the packaging.
●● cow’s milk introduced in place of formula milk Older children exposed to advertising chose
before 12 months of age because it is cheaper advertised food products significantly more often
than formula milks than those who were not exposed (Story and
French 2004).
●● very early weaning before 4 months or late
weaning after 6 months Numerous studies have documented that
children have little understanding of the
●● inappropriate weaning foods persuasive intent of advertising. High-fat,
high-sugar and low-fibre foods are regularly
●● convenience and sweet foods that are low in advertised on television and such advertisements
iron given due to limited availability of halal often feature messages implying that these
or nutritious vegetarian savoury weaning low-nutrient foods are beneficial. These
foods implications, although not technically false may
nonetheless confuse children and their parents
●● little variety of weaning foods given (e.g. about what makes a particular food a healthy
low-nutrient porridge given at all meals in the day) choice.
●● coercing infants to eat/drink to excess as a rapid
weight gain or a ‘bonny baby’ is seen as an
indicator of health and wellbeing.
