Looking at associations between Television and Lifestyle

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/food_ads/report.pdf
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/food_ads/appendix2.pdf
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/food_ads/appendix2.pdf

(Reports by the regulatory body, Ofcom)

Obesity caused by multiple factors?

Theory

‘(1) Individual (intrapersonal) - psychosocial, biological and behavioural factors.
(2) Social environmental (interpersonal) - family, friends and peer networks.
(3) Physical environment (community) – accessibility, school food policy and local facilities.
(4) Macro system (societal) - mass media and advertising, social and cultural norms,
production and distribution systems and pricing policies.’

‘Television viewing is correlated with obesity. Among the many influences on obesity,
television viewing is consistently reported as a key factor. Surveys confirm that hours
spent in television viewing correlate with measures of poor diet, poor health and obesity
among both children and adults. This finding is open to three explanations. (1) Television
viewing is a sedentary activity that reduces metabolic rates and displaces physical
exercise. (2) Television viewing is associated with frequent snacking, pre-prepared
meals and/or fast food consumption. (3) Television viewing includes exposure to
advertisements for HFSS1 food products. There is support for each of these explanations
although little empirical research attempts to disentangle them.’


This suggests that advertising itself has less effect on the lifestyle of children than the act of watching television itself. Watching television causes a behavioural change, making them more sedentary. They become less active. Lack of exercise can result in lowered energy levels, meaning that they crave sugar and want more, unhealthier foods. Thy will also want quick easy things to eat so they can go back to watching TV. The advertising plays on these needs and provides ‘inspiration for what they should eat’

However, I want to investigate the effects of TV advertising in general on the Lifestyle choices of children and obesity.

Focus for my study;

-Effects models – attitudes towards audiences, in particular child audiences

The active consumer
Theories of promotion recognise that consumers/viewers themselves play an active
role in mediating (selecting, interpreting, accepting or resisting, acting upon) media
messages. However, the FSA report does not pursue the question of whether
children have the competence to play such a role, leaving open some crucial
questions of media literacy, although the report does conclude (p.183) that research
is needed on how children interpret television advertising. This is indeed important,
because their interpretation mediates the advertised message, potentially enhancing,
reinforcing or undermining the message.12


-Packaging of food
-What it looks like - is it made to look fun?
-Are unhealthy foods misrepresented (industry packaging standards)

Ofcom’s Current Rules
Ofcom is required by the Communications Act 20032 to ensure that broadcasters meet a range of standards objectives for programmes and advertisements and to draw up codes of practice to assist broadcasters in meeting these standards.
Compliance with the codes is mandatory, and is a condition of being a broadcast
licence holder. Ofcom’s Codes contain a number of rules relating to children and to
food. Amongst these are:
􀁸 Advertisements in which personalities or other characters (including puppets
etc.) who appear regularly in any children’s television programme . present
or positively endorse products or services of special interest to children, may
not be advertised before 9pm.3
􀁸 Advertisements must not directly advise or ask children to buy or to ask their
parents or others to make enquiries or purchases.4
􀁸 Nutrition claims (e.g. .full of the goodness of vitamin C.) or health claims (e.g.
.aids a healthy digestion.) must be supported by sound scientific evidence.
Advertising must not give a misleading impression of the nutritional or health
benefits of the product as a whole.5
􀁸 Advertisements must not encourage or condone excessive consumption of
any food (Note: Interpretation of this rule should be by reference to current
generally accepted nutritional advice.).6
􀁸 Advertisements must not disparage good dietary practice. Comparisons
between products must not discourage the selection of options such as fresh
fruit and vegetables which accepted dietary opinion recommends should form
a greater part of the average diet.7

-How the adverts are constructed
->What methods are used to make them effective
-Placement of adverts within television advertising slots
->How much money is invested by the advertising
-Legislation governing ‘unhealthy foods’
-(Secondary) Other causes of sedentary activity
->Change in lifestyle trends
-What exactly are children watching
->BARB audience viewing data
-Comparison of obese and healthy children’s diet, behaviour and attitudes
-Parent and child opinions about advertising
-What exactly is marketed at children -> food types.

I will firstly look at obesity and lifestyle trends...