Quote of the Day: Marion Nestle on Advertising to Children
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA 
on 09.10.07
Photo credit: greg_robbins
Adults may be fair game for marketers, but children are not. Children cannot distinguish sales pitches from information unless taught to do so. Food companies spend at least $10 billion annually enticing children to desire food brands and to pester parents to buy them. The result: American children consume more than one-third of their daily calories from soft drinks, sweets, salty snacks and fast food. Worse, food marketing subverts parental authority by making children believe they are supposed to be eating such foods and they—not their parents—know what is best for them to eat.
Today's marketing methods extend beyond television to include Internet games, product placements, character licensing and word-of-mouth campaigns—stealth methods likely to be invisible to parents. When restrictions have been called for, the food industry has resisted, invoking parental responsibility and First Amendment rights, and proposing self-regulation instead. But because companies cannot be expected to act against corporate self-interest, government regulations are essential. ... Controls on marketing may not be sufficient to prevent childhood obesity, but they would make it easier for parents to help children to eat more healthfully."
—Marion Nestle in The Nation (Sept. 11, 2006)
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I'm not sure adults can distinguish between sales pitches and actual information either....
Turn off the ____ TV (which I haven't managed to do yet either).
Easy enough, Alisa. Sell your TV. If you really want to watch a program, you can buy it online, but I doubt you'll think of many that are worth paying for.
Better yet: Get a DVR and start watching 15 minutes into each recorded show. Then skip all the commercials.
Or buy them from iTunes for $2/episode. If you make at least $10/hour you'll be saving money by not wasting your time watching ads.