I recently came across a New York Times article titled “More Research Suggests Fast-Food Advertising Works on Children” by Dell’Antonia. One of the points made in this article is that when children watch more television and see more fast-food commercials, they are more likely to ask their parents to visit these fast-food chains such as Burger King and McDonald’s. Also, what makes it even worse is that the parents give into their kids and bring them to these fast-food chains. In a study conducted from 2009-2010, researchers found out that 79 percent of child-directed fast-food commercials were broadcasted on television channels such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney (the intended audience of these channels are pre-school kids and pre-teens). Ninety-nine percent of those commercials were from Burger King and McDonald’s alone. From my own recollection of my childhood, I remember that on a commercial break, at least three fast-food ads were shown on each of these channels. In 2006, the Council of Better Business Bureaus began the voluntary Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). This initiative asked these fast-food restaurants to take a pledge to only advertise more healthy items to children and to not advertise to children under 6 years old. Sadly, only Burger King promised to not advertise to young kids. In another study, researchers discovered that many children did not remember any of the healthy foods shown in the commercials by these fast-food chains. Also, the researchers discovered that 81 percent of the 99 three to seven-year-olds in the study remembered French fries in a Burger King commercial even though apple slices were shown and French fries were not. As of 2013, Burger King has reduced its advertising to children by 50 percent. Children are easy to influence and it is not right that these fast-food chains are manipulating these weak cognitive minds just to make money. As a country, we should try to figure out a way to protect our youth. If we do not, they will continue to want fast-food more often and many years from now these children will be at a higher risk of obesity.

Here is a link to the entire article:http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/more-research-suggests-fast-food-advertising-works-on-children/