There is a proven link between food advertising and food choices that children make. 10percent of schoolchildren worldwide and 22 million children under five are overweight or obese. Children of this age in Sweden shows about 100 minutes of television per day, two-thirds of which means the channels of commerce. The most popular channels with children are TV3, TV4 and Kanal 5, which were followed by researchers as part of international study.Children in Sweden are exposed to a large number of television commercials. Announcements food – especially fast food and sweets – dominate the advertisements shown during children’s viewing periods. Research at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that Sweden is no different from other countries regarding the number of ads that are suffered by children.
Although Sweden is seen as a progressive country, because we passed a law that limits television advertising targeting children, who still get plenty of exposure to food advertising, said Prell Hille, University of Gothenburg Department Food and Nutrition and Sport Science.
The Swedish researchers studied almost 200 hours of television programming on three channels, and announcements every 6 10:00 on two weekdays and two weekend days. The children most popular viewing hours – when fast food, alcohol, chocolate and sweets dominated food advertising – are between 7 and 10 on weekdays and 10 hours and 7 and 5 and 22 hours during the week-end.
13 research groups in 11 countries monitored food advertising during peak children’s viewing. During the study, 18percent of adverts are for food, with food advertisements shown an average of five times per hour. Sweden was slightly above this average with six food ads an hour.
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