Fosi the cynical exploitation of children through online advertising

Robert & Carole Hart-Fletcher

The Cynical Exploitation of Children through Online

Advertising

Expert Commentary for Family Online Safety Institute

Robert and Carole Hart-Fletcher create online learning communities for children, young people and adults. Over the past twenty years, they have provided rich learning experiences for over two million school children and their teachers in 44 countries. They now run KidsOKOnline, which provides specialist consultancy, design and development services to those who wish to create safe social learning spaces for children and adults. They also lead the Kids and Media UK advisory site for parents who wish to guide their kids and teens safely through the world of digital media.

The Cynical Exploitation of Children through Online Advertising


Over exploited and overweightWe all know that too many British children are overweight or obese. Too many children are heading for early diabetes and increased risk of heart disease. Some overweight children suffer from limited mobility and some suffer from the inflating side effects of drugs such as steroids used to fight asthma. But the vast majority of children are overweight simply because they eat too much sugary and fatty food.

UK governments have invested large amounts of money into some well-meaning projects, which aimed to change children’s eating habits or encourage them to take more exercise. But still our children are getting fatter.

In July 2007, Ofcom and the Committee of Advertising Practice announced that it would impose new restrictions for food and soft drink product advertisements to children in broadcast or non-broadcast media in the UK. They failed however to curb online advertising of fast foods to children – they just forced the food

© Copyright Robert & Carole Hart-Fletcher, 2011

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Hungry to Consume - Children and Online Advertising

industry to be cleverer. Food promotion to children is now much more subtle, more engaging and doesn’t look like advertising at all. And still our children are getting fatter.

Immediately following the Ofcom announcement, we carried out research with 2,800 children aged 6 to 13 in the SuperClubsPLUS and GoldStarCafe online communities. We asked them how they learned about new food and snacks. We wanted to understand the part of online promotion in changing their consumption behavior. Our key finding was that online promotion does clearly influence what children buy and eat.

So what did we find? Although most children find out about food and snacks from TV adverts, one fifth said they did visit food and drink sites. On those sites one third of them played games, 17% watched videos and the same number said they entered competitions.

Online promotion appears to work. 43% of the children said they would be influenced to buy or consume more of a food or snack if they saw it on the Web or played a game about it.

McDonalds was the favourite fast food site, where they could build a café. Cadbury’s Chocolate World, with its games, was the favourite sweets site. One child reported, “I go on Candyland.com online games, and in every game there is something related to food.”

Four years later, it seems the situation is worse. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the Children's Food Campaign (CFC) have just published a scathing report: The 21st century gingerbread house: How companies are marketing junk food to children online.


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Advertising

“We identified 100 websites, including product sites, brand sites and company web pages, which were examined in detail. Over 80 per cent of these websites were associated with products classed as less healthy according to the Food Standard Agency’s nutrient profiling model, which are therefore not allowed to be advertised during children’s television programmes.

“To evaluate the marketing methods used by food manufacturers to promote high fat, salt and sugar products to children we developed a checklist of commonly used marketing techniques:

children represented on the website cartoon characters including licensed or brand-owned (characters created

by marketers to appeal to children) people, personalities or celebrities whose name or image may be familiar

or of appeal to children cartoons, animations or videos competitions, games or apps with appeal to children. free gifts or prizes e.g. downloads or merchandise, toys or other items with

appeal to children links to social networking websites.


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Researchers found that food companies including Kellogg's, Rowntree and Cadbury used “cynical marketing” techniques that force food, high in salt, sugar and fat on young children. Companies set up websites that use "manipulative tactics" to hook children while they play online.

While of junk food is banned during children's TV programmes but no strict regulations apply online. The report said companies employ techniques, which many children find difficult to identify as advertising. Children are charmed by cartoon characters and images of other children. They watch videos, play games and download appealing apps and they take part in competitions with the promise of free toys or prizes. The Chupa Chups and Rowntree websites are good example:

“The website opens with an animated image of Chuck, the Chupa Chups brand character, who is sucking on a lolly. Below the image of Chuck several options are revolving, linking to the Chuck Party Store, Chuck Channel, Chuck television, and Chuck Acoustics sections of the website. Clicking through to these pages allows users to download wallpapers, icons, screen savers, mobile phone ring tones – ‘hear your phone fart’ – and watch adverts featuring Chuck. There is also a link to ‘Spread chuck around’ which moves the user to various social networking sites. Users are invited to share the link to the Chuck website on their Facebook wall for example.

“The animated Rowntrees website takes the form of a mansion with sweet packets scattered around each room. This includes a child’s bedroom, which has Rowntrees sweet packets and pieces of fruit scattered amongst each other. There are two interactive games on the website which users can play and share their score on Facebook. Rowntrees’ television adverts can be viewed in the video section of the website. There are buttons to share the website on Facebook and Twitter and also a link to the Rowntrees Facebook page.”

These companies routinely invite children to visit their Facebook pages (illegal for children under 13!). They also collect children’s email addresses, and email them directly.

“Over 75 per cent of the websites carrying HFSS products linked to a corresponding product or brand page on a social networking site, with Facebook and Twitter being the most common. Facebook pages allow young people to ‘like’ a product or brand. This interaction then allows companies to post information on that person’s ‘news feed’, and the individual’s Facebook friends will be notified of their interactions with the brand. We found examples


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Advertising

of companies posting updates a couple of times a week.

“For example, a post on the Nesquik UK Facebook page 16 said, “Brrr, it’s cold today. Has anyone tried drinking chocolate flavoured Nesquik with warm milk?”

In another example, ‘Chewie the Chewitsaurus’ of the UK Chewits Facebook page, posted the following to promote free sweets in a children’s magazine:

“The latest issue of Toxic mag is out now! Plenty cool stuff and includes all your faves, not to mention some absoultely great FREE gifts – some brilliant blackcurrant flavour Chewits bursting with flavour. Get your claws on a copy today!’

Four years after Ofcom said it would get tough, children are still swamped with powerful commercial influences to consume unhealthy products."

Mubeen Bhutta, Policy Manager at the BHF said: “Like wolves in sheep’s clothing, junk food manufacturers are preying on children and targeting them with fun and games they know will hold their attention. The marketeers must be rubbing their hands with glee because this loophole gives them carte blanche to reach eight in ten children behind their parents’ backs. We want to see consistent advertising regulations across all forms of media to protect our children from the lure of junk food marketing, and help protect their future health.”

What can parents do?BHF has launched website called the ‘Five Steps to Junk Food Marketing Success’ which shows in just a few minutes how junk food firms push their products.


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Do visit the 5 Steps website and take the children with you.http://www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/campaigning/food4thought/lardbar/index.aspx

If you want to do something to protect your children from the junk food promoters, please support BHF and email Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media

and Sport and insist on tighter regulations online. Email: [email protected]

Of course nothing much has happened since the last Ofcom initiative, so meanwhile, we encourage you to explore some of these sites with your children and make sure they understand that under all the fun and games, the site owners just want to sell them junk food that will make them fat and ill.

The report is excellently presented and very easy and quick to read: Download it here:http://www.bhf.org.uk/publications/view-publication.aspx?ps=1001772


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http://www.bhf.org.uk/publications/view-publication.aspx?ps=1001772

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/campaigning/food4thought/lardbar/index.aspx

Education

Fosi the cynical exploitation of children through online advertising