EFFECTS OF TELEVISION FOOD ADVERTISEMENTS ON CHILDREN: A PARENTAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Advertising is the most persuasive medium which has acquired an important role in moulding our modern day lives. Televised advertising targeted towards children is considered to be one of the controversial areas of discussion among the researchers because such advertising has developed a lot of behavioural and health related issues in children. This has raised questions about the ethicality of such advertisements. This study is intended to find out ethical concerns of television’s food advertisements directed towards children from parent’s perspective. The methodology which is used for this particular research is semi structured interviews. Three Pakistani TVCs related to children food products are selected and later parents of 3-14 years old children are interviewed to
identify the ethical concerns in these ads. The findings prove that most of the parents consider TV advertisements a great instigator in affecting children behavioral patterns. They are of the view that ethical concerns in food advertisements become prominent when such advertisements contribute to the changes in children’s eating patterns. A list of recommendations is provided in the end for parents and regulatory authorities to minimize the effects of such unethical advertisements on children’s wellbeing.