This week, Kellogg’s announced, with great fanfare, that they would henceforth only advertise breakfast cereal that met some minimal nutritional standards. Many advocates of kids’ health celebrated the decision. I must admit that I’m a little skeptical about any effort to address an issue as complex as childhood obesity with something as simple as restrictions on advertising and the reformulation of breakfast cereal.
I’m skeptical because breakfast cereal is but one of the many things most kids will eat in a day. Granted, a new formula for Frosted Flakes may shave a few grams of sugar off a kid’s diet but there will be ample opportunity throughout the rest of the day to make up for it. I’m also skeptical because youth obesity has as much to do with how few calories kids burn in a day as it does with how many calories they consume.
I’m particularly skeptical because I think the idea that advertising aimed at kids (breakfast cereal, soft drinks, fast food) is a root cause of obesity rests on a number of rather shakey assumptions:
- That kids watch TV attentively (rarely while also surfing, talking, eating, playing, etc.)
That they notice, pay attention to, and remember ads (clutter is not an issue with these high-capacity, highly attentive brains)
That kids who are influenced by an ad then pester their parents mercilessly and for as long as it takes (because, as every parent knows, they have an amazing attention span)
Finally, that exhausted and defeated, the parents restore peace in the home by purchasing the brand (parents never win these battles over cereal, pizza, candy, etc.)
Even if you accept all of these assumptions, it points to parents being the more important players here, not their kids. At the end of the day, they’re the ones who buy the groceries. Yes, I know, kids pester and advertising can teach them what brands to pester for. It seems to me, though, that parents should be able to withstand a little flurry of whimpers, cries, held breaths and slammed bedroom doors once in a while, if it means keeping their kids at a healthy weight.
Even if we accept that pestering influences what parents buy, we need to recognize that there is more to pestering than advertising. After all, kids often pester most about things they talk about with friends. Case in point: Webkinz ran exactly no advertising but my daughter was fascinated and persisted about this little stuffed animal she learned about from her friends. Kids also pester about things they experience (”Lizzy has a trampoline; can I have a trampoline?”) and things they pester about things they imagine (”I want a kitten!”). Kids pester and parents make choices. Do I give in on this one or say no? For the record, we have a Webkinz but, insist I, no trampoline and no kitten. Oh, and we have no Frosted Flakes in the house either.
Do I wish kids were exposed to less paid advertising? In fact, I do. They’ll face years of clutter for all of their adult life and, as mentioned, parents pay for most of this stuff and should, therefore, be making the decisions. That’s why, as a parent, I try to keep a cap on how much TV my kids watch and what networks (TVO Kids and Family Channel offer them a commercial-free environment). I subscribe to commercial-free magazine (Owl is a favourite at this point), and I direct them to commercial-free websites. It’s not an absolute solution, which is why I’ve learned to handle a bit of pestering once in a while.
Do I applaud the Kellogg’s decision? I like that they’re rethinking how much sugar to put in their cereals but the spots they’re not buying on kids television will, I suspect, be bought up by other brands. In the end, I suspect the clutter will remain pretty much the same. More importntly, I fear a large number of people will be distracted by this announcement and will conveniently forget that parenting, not advertising, is at the heart of the youth obesity epidemic on this continent.
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