Mascots Like Tony the Tiger Encouraging Kids to Eat Junk Food, ‘Endangering’ Health – National

Junk food characters such as Tony the Tiger, Pillsbury Dawboy and the popular Paw Patrol Corps contribute to the promotion. unhealthy diet in Canadian children, according to a new study.

This research was conducted with Heart & Stroke, It was announced Tuesday by researchers at the University of Ottawa.found associations between sanctioned cartoon characters (such as Spider-Man) and spoke characters (such as Lucky the leprechaun in Lucky Charms) in feeding children junk food.

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Targeting children at unhealthy food stores and supermarkets

“Kids especially love targeted marketing tactics. So characters like Tony the Tiger and Snap, Crackle and Pop have a huge impact on them,” says University of Ottawa Epidemiology. Monique Potvin Kent, Associate Professor of Public Health, said.

Lead author of the study, Potvin Kent, told Global News that the researchers found that children liked products advertised with those characters and asked their parents to buy them.

“The actual mechanics of why it works hasn’t been revealed, except that they’re very lovable characters and also familiar characters,” she said.

Potvin Kent warned that cartoon characters pose a threat to children’s health.

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Is your teen addicted to junk food?

“Children’s health is at risk. There is an obesity crisis, with 30 percent of the children and adolescent population overweight or obese…The majority of their consumption is due to fat, sugar. , from ultra-processed foods that are high in salt,” Potvin Kent said.

“People want their children to be healthy. It’s important that they don’t develop chronic diseases later on.”

The researchers in this study also wanted to know if the type of character makes a difference in marketing to children.

To do so, we exposed food ads to more than 1,300 Canadian children aged 9 to 12 in January and February 2023., We then measured their intentions to eat it, buy it, or pester their parents. We then analyzed the impact on children of spokes of popular media licensed cartoon characters and characters developed by food and beverage companies.

“Some kids saw spoke characters like Tony the Tiger, Pillsbury Dawboy and Kool-Aid Man,” Potvin Kent said. “Other kids were seeing ads with licensed characters like Spider-Man and Paw Patrol. It was an advertisement for a product.”

The study found that, on average, children exposed to ads featuring spoke characters had significantly higher overall effects compared to those exposed to licensed characters.

The study also found that although less powerful, licensed characters still have a noticeable impact on children, outweighing the impact of ads without cartoon characters.

Obesity rates among children and adolescents in the country have nearly tripled over the past 30 years, According to Health Canada.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Major causes of childhood obesity It is related to lifestyle habits such as lack of exercise and regular eating of high-calorie foods. However, genetic and hormonal factors can also play a role.

Obese children are more likely to develop various health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and depression.

“There is a childhood obesity crisis in Canada,” said Potvin Kent. “Children’s food and beverage advertising is associated with childhood obesity.”

a 2017 Heart and Stroke Foundation Survey found that more than 90 percent of food and beverage product ads viewed online by children and teens are about unhealthy products.

Potvin Kent said this is because while fast food, candy, chocolate, sugary drinks and cereals dominate advertising, healthy foods are rarely advertised to children. said to mean.

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Junk food marketing ban

British Columbia pediatrician and president of the Childhood Obesity Foundation Dr. Tom Warchowski says eating highly processed foods can lead to cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and even some cancers in children due to their high sugar load. life-long risk of cancer formation may be increased.

It can also create lifelong unhealthy eating habits, he added.

“And essentially we’re letting the food and beverage industry create this environment for our kids,” he says. The environment we should create for our children is one of healthy habits.

“It’s important to eat delicious, nutritious food whenever possible. It’s important to be physically active and move your body, regardless of your weight.”

Food and beverage advertising directed to children is now self-regulated by the food and beverage industry.

but, According to Health Canada’s website, Self-regulatory approaches have often proven ineffective in significantly reducing children’s exposure to food advertising.

“Children are particularly vulnerable to advertising. Food advertising influences their food attitudes, preferences, purchase preferences, consumption patterns and, ultimately, their overall health.” Children are heavily exposed to advertisements for foods containing sodium, sugar and saturated fat,” a Health Canada spokeswoman said in an email to Global News.

“To better protect the health of this vulnerable population, we are working to introduce restrictions on the advertising of certain foods to children.”

in April, Health Canada has updated its proposals Amending food and drug regulations to limit advertising to children of foods that promote excessive intake of sodium, sugar and saturated fat.

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Canadian children exposed to junk food ads online

This includes television and digital advertising of candy, chips, chocolate and pop drinks targeted at children under the age of 13.

We are currently seeking policy updates public opinion This subject will be considered until June 12, 2023. The draft regulation is expected to be published around winter 2024.

Another regulation is currently being passed through Congress. Called Building C-52aims to ban the sale of foods containing excessive amounts of sugar, sodium and saturated fat to children under the age of 13.

Additionally, the bill includes a provision requiring Health Canada to monitor the bill’s impact on the marketing of food and beverages to adolescents aged 13 to 18.

The bill is currently awaiting a third reading in the House.

Researchers at the University of Ottawa and Warchowski believed these bills and policy changes were a step in the right direction, but argued that more needs to be done.

“What’s missing is the fact that if you’re walking through the grocery store with a child under the age of 12 or older, there’s an eye-level product like Frost Flakes right there.” he says

“And what this study shows is that these characters, mostly corporate-created characters, Tony the Tiger… he’s not selling carrots. Tony the Tiger. basically sells candy under the guise of breakfast cereal.”

Researchers and Warshawski recommend that Canada take regulation a step further and ban these characters entirely.

For example, in an effort to combat childhood obesity, in 2018 Chile banned the use of cartoon characters Primarily for packaging children’s foods such as sweet cereals.

“So these characters should either be retired or repurposed,” Warchowski said.