Secondary abstract: |
Children are particularly interesting to the media and advertising, since they are more receptive to advertisement than adults during adolescence. The problem of advertising is mainly unhealthy food, but for child’s healthy growth and development a balanced diet and physical activity are most needed. The objectives of the thesis were to explore children's magazines and to determine the frequency of food advertising, and to present the phenomenon of food advertisements through different periods of time. We determined whether the children's magazines advertise less-recommended food and food with a higher content of simple sugars and fats that consumed in excessive quantities adversely affect the healthy growth and development of the child. In this study, we analyzed the advertisements of four children's magazines, in the two ten-year periods. Research has shown that food advertising in children's magazines over the years increased advertising with mostly less preferred foods with lots of sugar, fat and salt. The advertisements are full page and often include a prize game or a comic. The advertisements also often include appealing characters which quickly attract children's attention. Advertisements are often a part of surreptitious advertising. According to children’s health problems, which are often associated with inadequate diet, it would be necessary to prohibit advertising foods with a higher content of sugar, fat and salt to children. Editors and advertisers should more strictly observe the laws, regulations and recommendations which deal with advertising, but it also needs more consistent control over legislators advertising to children. |