Nearly 80% of parents would eliminate ads for unhealthy products for children

The TV It has become a common element in most homes. This appliance serves to see from a nice series of cartoons, or an interesting documentary, until hours of publicity. Spots that advertise diversity of articles not always recommended for health. In fact, some studies point to these contents as one of the culprits of the proliferation of junk food.

It is therefore not surprising that parents are concerned about these ads that are repeated in TV and make unhealthy items palatable to the little ones. This is indicated by the Organization of Consumers and Users, OCU, an entity that in one of its latest surveys collects the opinion of various parents for television advertising.

Influence of advertising

One of the questions in this survey was the influence that parents thought advertising could have on home purchases. The 59% of the participants affirmed that their children were an element when filling the cart in the supermarket. An opinion that in 62% of cases is influenced by the advertisements seen on television, according to respondents.

56% of parents not only believe that advertising influences the preferences of their children, but it also greatly affects this aspect. It is therefore not surprising that almost 80% of the participants would prohibit the advertisements of unhealthy products to avoid the influence that these have on the smallest of the house at the time of opting for an article or another.

OCU points out the advertising of products with images of attractive characters for the little ones but they do not offer nutritional information about it. It also highlights items that offer small gifts to children to give an incentive to purchase them. Unfair claims in the opinion of this entity.

Recommendations for advertising in children

Not only OCU has focused its attention on the influence of advertising on children. Other entities such as the Audiovisual Council of Andalusia have also launched messages addressed to parents so that they can prevent product announcements. unhealthy, and others that encourage compulsive purchases, make a dent in the smallest of the house:

- Parental control. The parents must attend to the consumption that their children make of mass media and be attentive to the contents that are presented to the smallest ones in the different screens. Sometimes there are series that camouflage the announcements between the minutes of material broadcast.

- Commitment by the authorities to review the advertising content issued at least, especially those that encourage the purchase of unhealthy products or that make the child want to buy constantly.

- Knowledge of the complaint ways of little recommended contents. While exercising parental control, if the parents detect some content that they consider unwise, they should inform the authorities so that they can act against these messages that are so harmful to the little ones.

Damián Montero