In the first revision in 11 years of its position on marketing to children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) December 4 issued a comprehensive and strongly worded indictment of the advertising industry in the United States and its efforts to establish “brand name preference” in children as young as preschool.

Selling to children is simply “business as usual” in the United States, the report by the AAP’s Committee on Communications notes, though many other countries forbid advertising on television to children younger than 12 years and at hours when children are expected to be watching.

The committee made clear that its interest in U.S. policies allowing almost unrestricted advertising to children stems from the fact that those ads have health effects. Specifically, the report cites:

• Alcohol advertising. The alcohol industry spends $5.7 billion a year on advertising, and young people typically view 2000 beer and wine promotions annually, with most of the ads concentrated in sports programming.
• Tobacco advertising. Tobacco manufacturers spend $30 million a day on advertising and promotion. “Exposure to tobacco advertising may be a bigger risk factor than having family members and peers who smoke and can even undermine the effect of strong parenting practices.”
• Drug advertising. The “Just Say No” message to teenagers must compete with $11 billion a year spent on cigarette advertising, $5.7 billion a year on alcohol advertising, and nearly $4 billion a year on prescription drug advertising.
• Food advertising. On TV, of the estimated 40,000 ads per year that young people see, half are for food, especially sugared cereals and high-calorie snacks. Healthful foods are advertised less than 3 percent of the time. Fast food conglomerates use toy tie-ins with major motion pictures to attract young viewers.
• Sex in advertising. Young viewers see many advertisements for drugs for erectile disfunction but none for birth control products or emergency contraception. “Research has definitively found that giving teenagers increased access to birth control through advertising does not make them sexually active at a younger age.”
• Advertising in schools.  Ads now appear on school buses, in gymnasiums, on book covers, and even in bathroom stalls. The educational TV Channel One consists of 10 minutes of current-events programming and 2 minutes of commercials. Channel One now plays in 25 percent of the nation’s middle and high schools and generates profits estimated at $100 million annually.

In a press conference before release of the policy statement, principal author Dr. Victor Strasburger noted that in the United States, virtually unlimited advertising to children has “commercialized childhood,” with industries looking to ever-younger children to become consumers with brand-name loyalties. Strasburger suggested that children can, however, be “immunized” against advertising pitches if they and their parents are educated in the way media works and the motivations of advertisers.

In other recommendations, the Communications Committee suggested that pediatricians should take some actions themselves, such as subscribing only to magazines that are free of alcohol and tobacco advertising for their waiting rooms, strongly counseling parents on limiting screen time for children, and writing letters to advertisers when they see inappropriate ads and urging parents to do the same.

The committee also urged actions at the federal level, suggesting that Congress should be asked to:

• Implement a ban on cigarette and tobacco advertising in all media, including banners and logos in sports arenas;
• Restrict alcohol advertising to what is known as “tombstone advertising,” in which only the product is shown, not cartoon characters or attractive women;
• Implement a ban on junk-food advertising during programming that is viewed predominantly by young children;
• Convene a national task force on advertising under the auspices of the National Institute of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, or the Federal Trade Commission, to discuss the nature of the current problem and propose solutions.

The policy statement “Children, Adolescents, and Advertising” prepared by the AAP’s Committee on Communications, is published in the December 2006 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

See also:
May 2006 News Alert:  Food Marketing to Children Linked to Obesity (5/4/06)
June/July 2006. HHCS: Food Marketing to Children.