ArcticPhoenix
12-04-2006, 06:45 PM
CHICAGO — Inappropriate advertising contributes to many of kids’ ills — including obesity, anorexia, underage drinking and having sex too soon — and Congress should crack down on it, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.
The doctors group issued a policy statement in response to what it calls a rising tide of advertising aimed at children. The policy appears in December’s Pediatrics, scheduled for release today.
"Young people view more than 40,000 ads per year on television alone and increasingly are being exposed to advertising on the Internet, in magazines, and in schools," the policy statement says.
The statement cites examples such as TV commercials for sugary breakfast cereals and high-calorie snacks shown during children’s programs and ads for erectile-dysfunction drugs shown during televised sports.
The group also is critical of fast-food ads on educational TV shown in schools, magazine ads with stick-thin models, and toy and other product tie-ins between popular movie characters and fast-food restaurants.
The ads influence kids to eat poorly, and to think drinking is cool, sex is a recreational activity and anorexia is fashionable, the academy says.
The group says the federal government should:
• Ban junk-food ads during shows geared toward young children.
• Limit commercial advertising on children’s programming to no more than 6 minutes per hour.
• Restrict alcohol ads to showing only the product, not cartoon characters or attractive young women.
• Prohibit interactive digital TV advertising directed at children.
Clicky (http://www.columbusdispatch.com/health/health.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/04/20061204-A12-00.html)
The doctors group issued a policy statement in response to what it calls a rising tide of advertising aimed at children. The policy appears in December’s Pediatrics, scheduled for release today.
"Young people view more than 40,000 ads per year on television alone and increasingly are being exposed to advertising on the Internet, in magazines, and in schools," the policy statement says.
The statement cites examples such as TV commercials for sugary breakfast cereals and high-calorie snacks shown during children’s programs and ads for erectile-dysfunction drugs shown during televised sports.
The group also is critical of fast-food ads on educational TV shown in schools, magazine ads with stick-thin models, and toy and other product tie-ins between popular movie characters and fast-food restaurants.
The ads influence kids to eat poorly, and to think drinking is cool, sex is a recreational activity and anorexia is fashionable, the academy says.
The group says the federal government should:
• Ban junk-food ads during shows geared toward young children.
• Limit commercial advertising on children’s programming to no more than 6 minutes per hour.
• Restrict alcohol ads to showing only the product, not cartoon characters or attractive young women.
• Prohibit interactive digital TV advertising directed at children.
Clicky (http://www.columbusdispatch.com/health/health.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/04/20061204-A12-00.html)