1)The stress here is more on the “response” part than in the “summary” part. Proving your thesis should be the most important part of this essay. Using the two texts you have chosen, often in conversa

ENGLISH 1301

3/28/2021

In the video “Marketing Food to Children,” Anna Lappe is explaining how industries, especially the food industry the way it is investing large amounts of money in advertising their products to children and teenagers. The under-aged are being manipulated to consume products that pose great harm to their bodies. According to me, advertising to children and teenagers is wrong, significantly if it does not add any value to their healthy being. Young people are an easy target to industries since they are easier to convince about something. The fact that they are easy to be confident puts them at a higher risk of making wrong decisions without careful consideration. The video was conducted, but Anna Lappe reveals that several young people are getting diseases related to such products' consumption. Nearly all the food products advertised are not healthy for children since they are high in fat, sugar and other food sweeteners and preservatives that pose harm to children’s’ health progressively for a long time. It is not okay for junk foods to be expressed as healthy and without sugar, whereas there are many other ingredients. It has become challenging for parents to keep track of what their children are watching and consuming. It is beyond the parents' reach to control what their children are watching since the industries are advertising their products everywhere, even in schools. The sectors that invested more in children, since they become royal customers for their brand in all their lives. It is more difficult to convince parents to buy cokes or other junk foods for their children than to convince young individuals to consume them or add pressure to their parents to buy that particular brand of products. According to my understanding, the industries are doing the wrong thing by using what children love, for example, cartoon characters, to add pressure on children to consume the products they are producing despite the adverse effects it brings to their bodies.

The TED Talk begins when Anna Lappe sets the tone for the presentation by putting her audience in an emotional state where she asked the audience to think of a child that matters for them so much. She later introduces her daughter to the audience and narrates how the best friend of her two-year-old daughter, who happens to be “Dora the explorer,” a cartoon character, influenced her child to be obsessed with band-aids. It reached a point where her baby would also pretend that her head is hurt so that her mother could buy for her such band-aids. Lappe also states how industries have realized how they will be using cartoon characters to sell their products. The food industry spends more than two billion dollars per year as their marketing budget for advertisements, mostly on children and teenagers. This has led to many adverse effects on the young generation since they are consuming more junk foods, which worsens their health. Most young individuals are being affected by diet-related illnesses due to the pressure created by such companies. Marketing to young people has increased brand loyalty and grants them the pester power to ask their parents to buy certain fast foods. Now children can influence their parents to purchase something that was not in their budget. Despite being labelled as healthy, fast food are full of fat, sugar and various salts that are not good for young people's health. Their main aim is to make children eat more of their products and not care about their healthy being. Fast food companies are now teaming up with junk food companies to expand their public institutions' markets to promote their brand loyalties. Target marketing has been highly applied and race-based. Many African-American young people are targeted to view ads of sugary drinks, which has led to them being hit the hardest by diet-related illnesses. Even though the junk food companies say that they have reduced their marketing on children, but the reality is that they are just trying to change and spread in different platforms where they can get access to young people. Anna states that everyone's responsibility is to ensure that we have taken care of our children, who we love. Campaigns have also been set to prevent fast food companies from advertising for children; I agree that it is not the role of fast-food companies to have parenting practices.

Children are very innocent and do not have all the required knowledge to determine who is telling them the truth and lying. Therefore, I agree with Lappe in her TED Talk about “Marketing Food for Children” since children are being deceived by grownups whose intentions are only for making profits. It does not make sense to put ads on young people who do not have a responsibility to take care of themselves since they are not mature enough mentally and physically to make their own decisions. It is excellent to sponsor children with writing books and other learning materials, but it is not right to print them with products that will not add any value to them or their studies. This is doing the right things for the wrong reasons.

The advertisers do not reveal the side effects of consuming their products; the information about their products is sugarcoated to manipulate the young individuals. This is because children are only attracted to sweet foods; they do not care about the ingredients that have been put of anything.

Finally, the fast-food companies and junk food companies should not give themselves the responsibility of parenting. Advising and telling children about what suits them best is the role of their parents. There is a conflict that can be recognized when a parent advises the child to eat something healthy, and then companies like Donald advises children to eat healthy junk foods which are not free. The government should ban all the advertisements and sponsorship that are happening even in schools that are a snare to them, not knowing they are being targeted. Moreover, the companies should be regulated such that companies are advised not to put a lot of chemicals in foods.

Marketing food to children has led to more disadvantages than advantages. This is because the marketing techniques are more advanced so that the young individuals are listening to their parents less. A high percentage of the time, the children are being fed with information about foods that looks compelling but have substantial side effects. Marketing should only be limited to parents, thus imposing less pressure on children, which most of them are false.