Published on June 2021 | Food Marketing

The Effects of Food Adverting Directed Toward Children and Adolescences on Food choice and Purchasing Request

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the contemporary increase of commercial advertisement, mainly television food advertising directed at children on the children's attitude in food choice and purchasing requests as well as determining the parents’ opinion on the influences these impacts on their children. This study was implemented through filling in questionnaires face-to-face with children and their parents in Sulaymaniyah city, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The results showed that most of the children spend their spare time on-screen viewing which makes them easily targeted to the contemporary model of advertising. Most of the children (82.7%) were watching TV ads. That has significantly influenced children's attitudes toward commercialized products, mainly by food and drink advertising (42.10%). Most of the children agreed with the statement that they will get depressed when their demands are refused by the parents, even though, they understand the reason for their parent's denial. The results showed that the parents are concerned about the negative impacts of ads on their children's health and habits, hence they mostly agreed that there should be strict government laws and regulations to control ads.