Families, food, and pester power: beyond the blame game?

Abstract

Given the moral and medical panic surrounding rising rates of childhood obesity, there has been much debate about who on what is to be blamed, with parents and HFSS (high fat, salt, and sugar) food advertising often censured for their role. In this paper, we review the literature on childhood obesity and pester power, and the broader context of consumer socialization within the family. We then discuss findings from a questionnaire and focus group study of 8-11 year old children in New Zealand exploring aspects of their advertising experiences and everyday snack food consumption. HFSS food ads were well-represented in their repertoire of favorite ads, and they reported being influenced by these. However, their accounts of snacking highlighted the extent to which their actual consumption was shaped by parental agendas and concerns. Although they gravitated towards less healthy snack foods, fruit, and vegetables were included in their categorization and repertoire of snacks, perhaps reflecting the level of monitoring and gatekeeping exerted by their parents, who established ground rules for snacking and in many cases directly controlled their access to snack foods, although the limits imposed varied according to context. The children were generally accepting of this, although they drew on a range of strategies and tactics to access their preferred snacks. We conclude by considering the implications of this study for parents who seek to provide their children with a healthy diet and others concerned about health and public policy, and we suggest some avenues for developing knowledge in this area.

Australian children's views about food advertising on television

“…Nevertheless they still described desire for the products and made purchase requests of their parents and caregivers. Focus group studies with children in the same age group but from other countries, by Marshall, O'Donohoe and Kline (2007) with New Zealand children, and Folta, Bourbeau and Goldberg (2008) with American children, also found them to understand the persuasive intent of advertising while nevertheless still being influenced by them. These findings support theories of advertising literacy (Selman, 1980;John, 1999), and information processing (Roedder, 1981), which propose that children aged 7-11 years, are aware of advertising intent but do not use these literacy skills unless specifically reminded to do so.…”

Parental mediation of food marketing communications aimed at children

“…The intention of this type of restriction is to reduce the impact advertising has on children by enhancing their knowledge (Buijzen & Valkenburg 2003) and parents discussed children's food products, as well as the marketing of such products, within a discourse of healthy eating, aiming to influence their children's diets (Ip et al 2007;Kelly et al 2006;Marshall et al 2007). …”

On the Role of Social Media in the ‘Responsible’ Food Business: Blogger Buzz on Health and Obesity Issues

“…This study included three sub-sectors of the food industry: quickservice restaurants, beverage, and food & confectionary companies, which have been at the centre of the obesity epidemic debate (Kolk et al, 2012;Marshall et al, 2007). Following industry data (Millward Brown Optimor, 2009;Rogers, 2009), we selected companies that were either the top two industry leaders in English language countries, or listed in the 100 global brands in [2007][2008][2009].…”