Calories for Sale

Food Marketing to Children in the Twenty-First Century

Bibliographic Data

ID9759053
AuthorsSusan Linn (0000-0001-9705-9428, Media Center of Judge Baker Children's Center, Harvard Medical School, corresponding author), Courtney L Novosat (Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood in Boston)
Year2008
Volume615
Issue1
Pages133-155
Publication date2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0002716207308487
OpenAlexW2117771886
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited12

Budgets for marketing to children have spiked well into the billions, an escalation that mirrors the rise in childhood obesity rates. Children are targets for a maelstrom of marketing for all sorts of products enabled by sophisticated technology and minimal government regulation. Despite the fact that recent studies document links between food advertising and childhood obesity, a significant proportion of marketing that targets children is for energy-dense, low-nutrient food. Moreover, advances in digital technology allow marketers to find more direct, personalized gateways to reach young audiences that sidestep parental authority and bank as much on the unknowing parent as the gullible child. Cataloguing the depth and breadth of child-centered food marketing while discussing grassroots strategies for instituting change, the authors argue that parents can no longer keep pace either with innovations in advertising or increased spending, suggesting the need for more stringent government regulations on food marketing to children

Advertising · Business · Childhood obesity · Digital advertising · Digital marketing · Digital strategy · Food marketing · Geography · Government (linguistics · Grassroots · Obesity · Overweight · Pace · Political science · Social marketing · Social media marketing · Child Development and Digital Technology · Education, Sociology, Communication Studies · Marketing · Medicine · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet