Article No. 6

Media and marketing causes obesity in addition to energy consumption and expenditure.

Being overweight during childhood and adolescence from eating fast food excessively increases the risk of developing high cholesterol, hypertension, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problems, depression and type 2 diabetes as a youth. One disease of particular concern is Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to overweight and obesity and has increased dramatically in children and adolescents

One research reveals that more than 50 percent of television advertisements directed at children promote food and beverage(including fast food) that are high in calories and fat and low in fiber and nutrient density.

* Fast food outlets spend $3 billion in television ads targeted to specifically children.

There surely is a link between exposure to food advertising and the increasing rates of obesity among youth. In the 1970s and 1980s, some experimental studies showed that young children under age eight were much more likely than older children to believe that television advertisements were telling the truth, and that exposure to television advertisements influenced the food choices among children, enticing them to choose more sugary and tasty food which increased requests to parents for fast food they saw advertised.

A recent literature review by Kaiser Family Foundation highlighted a number of studies about how advertising influenced dietary and other food choices in children, which likely contributed to energy imbalance and weight gain. One study found that among children as young as three, the amount of weekly television viewing was significantly related to their caloric intake as well as requests and parental purchases of specific foods they saw advertised on television. Several other studies found that the amount of time children spent watching TV was correlated with how often they requested fast food products and brand preferences. In order to deepen this correlation between food advertising and childhood obesity even more, many questions need to be answered using sustainable studies supported with sufficient statistics.

http://mylatinovoice.com/food-and-living/17-health/2477-obesity-growing-health-problem-in-latino-youth.html

Article No. 5

The average preschooler (2-5 years) saw 2.8 TV ads for fast food every day in 2009; children (6-11 years) saw 3.5; and teens (12-17 years) saw 4.7.
McDonald's and Burger King have pledged to improve food marketing to children. However, both restaurants increased their volume of TV advertising from 2007 to 2009. Preschoolers saw 21% more ads for McDonald's and 9% more for Burger King, and children viewed 26% more ads for McDonald's and 10% more for Burger King.

This fast food marketing is very impactive. In the survey by Rudd Center, 82% of parents reported that they took their child to McDonalds at least once a week during past week.

A $4.2 billion marketing budget in 2009 shows an extremely profitable industry. Over the past two years, incomes of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and McDonald's have more than doubled.
Those industries are using their $4.2 billion for marketing largely for new generations of customers, like KIDS. In 2006, industry's marketing budget directed at children was $1.6 billion which took a big percentage of budget for whole marketing.


http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-11-09-the-fast-food-industrys-4.2-billion-marketing-blitz

Article No. 4

One of the most in depth studies related to fast food nutrition and marketing has reported that American young children see countless ads of such fast-food restaurants on the television. 
According to the report, a preschooler on an average gets to see 3-ads in a day, while a teenager gets to see 5-ads in a day. And most importantly, the fast food industry ended up spending about $4.2 billion in 2009 which was much more than estimated before that. The estimated money is spent on advertisements on TV, internet and social networking sites, apart from billboards and pamphlets.

Sharma, Rasik. "Children Witnessing too Many Fast Food Adverts." TOPNEWS. 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 25 Nov. 2010. <http://topnews.co.uk/216415-children-witnessing-too-many-fast-food-adverts>.

Article No. 3

Junk food restaurants are increasing advertisements on their meals targeted at young kids purposely, according to Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
Number of advertisements that preschoolers saw increased rapidly from 2007 to 2009 as Los Angeles Times reported. McDonald's ads increased 21 percent more, Burger King's ads increased 9 percent more and Subway's ads increased 56 percent more. The impact was the greatest among kids ages 6 to 11. In addition, just 12 of 3,039 meal combinations in general junk food restaurants met the nutritional standards for preschoolers, and just 15 met the standards for teenagers.
The Yale study was conducted by analyzing the marketing tactics of 12 fast food chains and nutritional data in more than 3,000 kids' meals and 2,781 menu items.

Hiatt, Curtis. "Fast Food Restaurants Increase Ads Aimed at Kids." Health Buzz [New York, 8 Nov. 2010. Web. 25 Nov. 2010. <http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/diet/articles/2010/11/08/health-buzz-fast-food-restaurants-increase-ads-aimed-at-kids.html>.

Innovation

Best Indicator:

Money spent on advertisements to children by McD, KFC and Burger King (biggest and most popular fast food restaurants in general).

Possible Innovations:

-Ban advertisements on junk food
-Support junk food markets to make healthier food and promote the project
-Make changes on advertisements that people get awareness of the need of food balance in their life from the advertisements, like the impact of pictures on cigarettes' case these days.

Best innovation:

-Make changes on advertisements that people get awareness of the need of food balance in their life from the advertisements, like cigarettes.

: I'll make it succeed by making sure

Systemic Thinking

All the environmental, social and economic issues caused by this problem of junk food can be linked altogether. The most serious situation is social advertisements targeted at young preschoolers by junk food markets. This not only leads to ADHD, but also to obesity and diabetes. These put pressure on health care system. For these advertisements, lots of money is spent that is not rather necessary. And also amount of money spent by general people to buy junk food for their children after watching advertisements and getting influenced is increasing every year, too. So it promotes less productive work force because children don't get proper education or vision about it. The problem will also flow into environment-harming as well by using abundant plastic to sell those junk food to a lot of children. Plastic used by them harms environment that it even leads to part of global warming.

Advertisements targeted at children for junk food

Stakeholders:

-McDonalds, KFC, Burger Kings
-Teenagers
-Young children (age 5-10)
-Adults (parents)
-Government
-Advertisers
-Marketing companies

Possible Indicators:

-Number of advertisements targeted at children for junk food every year
-Percentage of young children who got ADHD from watching advertisements and getting corrupted mind.
-Amount of plastic used for selling junk food after advertisements
-Money spent on advertisements to children by McD, KFC and Burger King (biggest and most popular fast food restaurants in general).

Vision:

What I would like to see is that all the companies stop marketing to preschoolers and find a better way of beneficial child-targeted marketing. Then the number of children getting disease 'ADHD', like mental disorder, from concentrating on junk food advertisements too much that influence them badly will decrease and it will create a better society. In addition to decreasing or eradicating amount of advertisements targeted at children, toy giveaways that are given with junk food should be limited as well. In that way, diabetes and obesity rate will reduce.

Presentation-

Young children, and teenagers are getting fat. Fast food is influencing children so negatively that obesity rate among them is increasing fast and causing many problems these days. I am developing my understanding further on a relationship between junk food and children to come up with reasonable and appropriate solutions. This current issue not only leads to environmental problems because of percentage of plastic used on fast food that harms environment, but also to social problems among most young children in addition to bad influencing advertisements targeted at teenagers in the society. From the research that I've been doing until now, I found out that some countries are looking forward to work out these problems by limiting toy giveaways on fast food and trying to redefine what beneficial child-targeting marketing is, and encouraging companies to stop marketing to preschoolers entirely. I believe the best solution is to raise tax on junk food as a reasonable amount, which can link to economical problem as well. We should also raise awareness by giving education to young children how unhealthy junk food is with visuals that they realize junk food should be eaten not more than once in a month. I want to link all the problems while expanding this research even further that I can think of innovations I can make and propose changes that will help me achieve my vision.

Article No. 2

A team of public health researchers from Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity found out that fast-food advertising toward 2-to-18-year-olds increased despite industry efforts to reduce marketing aimed at children. The fast food restaurants that influence teenagers the most are like McDonald's, Wendy's, Subway, KFC, Taco Bell, Dairy Queen, Sonic, Domino's, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. Brownell believes there needs to b an improved shift in public attitude, combined with legislative action to end advertising targeted to kids and to change the society. "Children are simply too big a target for them," he said. "We need to redefine what child-targeting marketing is and companies need to stop marketing to preschoolers entirely.

Melnick, Meredith. "Fast Food Ads Target Kids with Unhealthy Food and It Works." Time Health Land. 8 Nov. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2010. <http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/08/study-fast-food-ads-target-kids-with-unhealthy-food-and-it-works/>.

Article No. 1

San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to limit toy giveaways that come with children's fast food. This action is supposed to start from December 1, 2011. Fast food chains have been selling more than a billion insalubrious children's meals with toys ever since McDonald's Happy Meal was introduced in 1979. "This is a tremendous victory for our children's health. Our children are sick. Rates of obesity in San Francisco are disturbingly high, especially among children of color," said Supervisor Eric Mar, the ordinance's sponsor. There are many direct implications for children's health. Cutting one form of predatory marketing, like fast food TV advertisements, could reduce the number of overweight U.S. children and adolescents by nearly 20 percent. According to Corporate Accountability International's recent report "Clowning with Kids' Health", fast food chains have defended giveaways and other predatory marketing by claiming they are increasingly offering "healthier" options, which many people were against. "One in three kids are, or will become, sick from the food they eat. We see it not only in our city's waiting rooms and classrooms, but in our soaring health care bills. It's time for fast food promotions to stop contravening our efforts to change this reality," said Dr. Carmen Rita Nevarez, vice  president of the Public Health Institute.

Rossi, Christina . "SF Votes to Curb Junk Food Marketing to Kids." SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire. 2 Nov. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2010. <http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sf-votes-to-curb-junk-food-marketing-to-kids-106565238.html>.

How and Why I Selected My I-Search Topic

When I was reading News articles in Google, I saw the article about how numerous people claim that tax on junk food should be raised to reduce obesity as well as to change individual behavior. I suddenly got interested in how the rate of obesity amongst youths is increasing so fast these days and why children would rather prefer junk food, which they know is unhealthy. I wanted to develop my understanding further on a relationship between junk food and teenagers then come up with solutions for problems caused by it. I think it is a pretty important topic because this not only leads to environmental problems, but also to social problems among most young children.