UK Government sponsors fast food marketing in schools via teachers

Almost two thirds of UK primary schools will receive free teaching aids from Media Smart by the end of 2011. The non-profit media literacy programme provides reading and writing material that focuses on advertising.

Media Smart says that its teaching packs, which it says are created by educational experts and cover topics such as language, images, and production across commercial media, “teach children to think critically about advertising in the context of their daily lives”.

But parents might view the lessons that their children are learning differently if they knew that the programme was funded by some of the world’s most powerful toy and fast food companies.

The supporters are the Advertising Association, the British Toy and Hobby Association, Business in the Community, DDB London, Ferrero, Five, GMTV, Hasbro, the Internet Advertising Bureau, the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, ITV, Jetix, Lego, Mars, Mattel, McDonald’s, MediaCom, Mindshare, Turner, and Viacom.

The teaching packs for 6 to 11 year olds have included advertisements for food products and fast food retailers. Media Smart says that teachers might use the materials in various ways, such as projects for the end of term or by picking activities to suit lesson plans.

When Media Smart was launched in 2002 the Financial Times said that the initiative showed “the seriousness with which the industry is now viewing a potential ban on marketing to children”.

What agenda does it have?
The Children’s Food Campaign of Sustain, an umbrella organisation for groups campaigning for better food and farming, has called Media Smart’s approach “particularly reprehensible,” because its lesson plans repeatedly involve viewing advertisements for junk food.

The campaign says, “Teachers are instructed to show adverts for Burger King, Frosties, Pepsi, McDonalds, Walkers Crisps and the sugary cereal Hunny Bs.” The programme is funded by McDonald’s, Kelloggs, Mars, Ferrero, and other food manufacturers.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, warned: “While there is nothing wrong with companies genuinely seeking to use their resources to support schools on a philanthropic basis, it seems that manufacturers of fast foods can’t help but introduce their support accompanied by subliminal, and not so subliminal, advertising. Teachers should look with caution at what is on offer.”

The Children’s Food Campaign says that changes in advertising regulations since 2007 mean that it would not be possible to broadcast an advertisement for Hunny Bs now, as the use of licensed characters to market food to children is now restricted. Showing it to children in a classroom, however, remains legal.

Media Smart counters critics by saying that it uses hundreds of real life examples of advertising in its materials. It defends its past use of the Hunny Bs advertisement, saying that the materials were written before the new advertising rules were proposed in September 2007 (Charlotte Higgo, Media Smart, personal communication, 5 October 2010).

Where does it get its money from?
Although Media Smart acknowledges that it is supported by the UK advertising business, its website does not make entirely explicit its link to an advertising industry lobby group called the World Federation of Advertisers, which champions and defends the interests of advertising companies.

The federation represents around 90% of global marketing communications worth almost $700bn (£430bn; €490bn) a year. It has lobbied against proposals by the European Union and the World Health Organization for tighter restrictions on marketing of food to children (http://bit.ly/pAySN7; http://bit.ly/nAv7pu).

Media Smart’s chairman is Paul Jackson, also regional vice president of the World Federation of Advertisers (http://bit.ly/qr6Fjb). The federation says that it “wholeheartedly supports” Media Smart but does not “fund Media Smart and has no formal links to the programme” (Will Gilroy, World Federation of Advertisers, personal communication, 13 December 2010).

Reference Notes
Cite this as: BMJ 2011;343:d5415
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5415.full?ijkey=zxXVcIkeHmgHXD6&keytype=ref

Footnotes
• bmj.com Feature: Will industry influence derail UN summit? (BMJ 2011;343:d5328, doi:10.1136/bmj.d5328)

*Richard Cookson is a freelance journalist. SpinWatch works with the British Medical Journal to produce occasional Lobby Watch health lobbying-related columns.

Marketing materialism to the young is linked to self esteem

Peer pressure, targeted marketing campaigns and bad parenting have all been blamed for increasing materialism in children. Until now, there has been little evidence showing when this drive for material goods emerges in kids and what really causes it.

In one of the first studies to focus on the development of materialism among children, Deborah Roedder John, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, reveals that a young person’s level of materialism is directly connected to their self-esteem.

In her recent paper “Growing up in a Material World: Age Differences in Materialism in Children and Adolescents,” in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, John and co-author Lan Nguyen Chaplin, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Illinois and Carlson alum, report the results of two studies conducted with children in three age groups.

In the first study, they found that materialism increases from middle childhood (8 and 9 years old) to early adolescence (12 and 13 years old) but then declines by the end of high school (16 to18 years old). This mirrors patterns in self-esteem, which instead decreases in early adolescence but increases in late adolescence.

“The level of materialism in teens is directly driven by self-esteem,” said John. “When self-esteem drops as children enter adolescence, materialism peaks. Then by late adolescence, when self-esteem rebounds, their materialism drops.”

In a second study, John and Chaplin boosted self-esteem by giving children positive information about peer acceptance. Children were given paper plates with positive descriptors about them, such as smart and fun, which were provided by their peers in a summer camp setting.

This seemingly small gesture drastically reduced the high levels of materialism found among 12 to 13 year-olds and the moderate levels of materialism found among 16 to 18 year-olds.

“Particularly relevant,” said John, “is the fact that by simply increasing self-esteem in teens, we see a decreased focus on material goods that parallels that of young children. While peers and marketing can certainly influence teens, materialism is directly connected to self-esteem.”

It is clear from this study that 'label' marketing is cynically aimed directly at the self-esteem of young children, teenagers and young adults.

For parents interested in instilling positive values in their children and teens, the message is clear: encouraging a sense of self-worth among young people can reduce the impact of cynical marketing and the emphasis on material goods.