http://www.maniacsolutions.com/marketing-junk-food/
You see them everywhere-magazines emaciated teen models with brash and defiant eyes that say "We express", arms and ankles with bright fashion accessories. The definition of "cool girl" in another magazine is a glossy lips, half woman, half-child peeking ambivalently behind a pair masquerade-eyed. "I am making, which seems to say his body eloquently displaying a padded push up bra. These tactics teen marketing have managed to make his point. Girls as young as ten, have made the word "diet" part of his vocabulary and the La Senza identity.
Body image and weight control are the dominant culture occupied since the beginning of the 20th Century when film and media images created prototypes of ideal male and female bodies-men with swashbuckling muscles and women with slender waists and boyish hips. The effect of marketing in adolescents and the media images on our teenage population can not be overstated. No surprise then that teenagers of both genders have distorted images the body that often lead to unhealthy behaviors.
A study of adolescents shows that 53% of American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This figure rises to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen-a situation which accounts for the 5-10 million girls and women struggling with eating disorders.
In another study of more than 10,000 adolescents, the researchers noted that a large proportion of healthy children are worried about body building. The children are concerned with defining muscles through weight gain, a goal that often leads to harmful use of supplements like creatine, amino acids, growth hormones and steroids. This is not surprising considering the teen marketing and abs tight Brawns largely the music videos that are broadcast from Monday to Friday from 4:30 to 20:00 when the majority of adolescents and children are home from school.
What is even Most worrying is the number of cosmetic procedures were performed in adolescents. According to a report published in http://www.mediafamily.org In 2003, more than 223,000 cosmetic procedures were performed in patients 18 years of age or younger and 39,000 of them were surgical procedures that were incidental in nature, nose shaping, breast lifts, breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tuck. The author who reported on these procedures stated emphatically programs to the media are responsible for the distorted body image teenager. Programs such as "extreme makeovers" have given our young people an unrealistic view of what constitutes "normal appearance."
Ironically, however, habits of children have been eating out of control, even in the midst of a cultural obsession with thinness. According to one study, the average child sees 10,000 food advertisements a year on television, most of which are commercial for fast food and junk food. Recent statistics indicate that 14% of children are seriously overweight and 60% of overweight children between the ages of 5 and 10 have had at least one risk factor for heart disease.
Given the mixed messages and signals North American teens are getting about their bodies and food, what can we as parents and professionals do to help rectify the situation?
First and foremost, we must challenge the teen marketing goal of thinness and foster a concept of fitness that goes beyond the parameters of weight. One scheme fitness which includes a variety of fun activities such as dance, yoga, pilates, swimming, walking would put the "fun" back into activity rather than isolating exercise as a training to be supported by the "perfect" body.
Secondly, We need to challenge the concept of weight loss and weight gain. The real issue here is not weight, as Los Angeles psychologist, Keith Valone suggests, but body composition. To the taking the focus beyond the weight of body composition, perhaps we can promote a better understanding of what a healthy and fit body means.
Third Instead, we must provide ways to emulate for our teenagers who go beyond body consciousness. We provide the media images men strong, empowered and women who eat well, exercise regularly and are more concerned about living your truth, that after the narrow conception the beauty market. It is encouraging that the editors and many have already taken the initiative to profile heavier models in their magazines.
Fourth, we that the marketing push for more responsible and ethical teen. No wonder that pedophiles and child molesters have become a significant problem online considering the fact that marketing to teens, "sexy" for children and adolescents appears to be an accepted business strategy in our culture.
Copyright 2006 Mary Desaulniers
http://GreatBodyat50.blogspot.com
Marketing Junk Food to Kids – Marion Nestle