Tilted Cat Head
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Location: Manhattan, NY
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Quote:
December 04, 2006
Kids see too many anti-impotence ads: doctors
By Andrew Stern
LINK
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Children should be exposed to fewer television ads for anti-impotence drugs and more for birth control, and need to be shielded from an advertising onslaught in general, the leading U.S. pediatricians' group said on Monday.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, in a new policy statement, urged doctors, parents, legislators and regulators to limit children's viewing of television and access to the Internet, move some TV ads to later hours after bedtime, and restrict how alcoholic beverage makers promote their products.
"If we taught kids media literacy, you can essentially immunize kids against advertising," said statement author Dr. Victor Strasburger, a pediatrician at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
The average American child is bombarded by 40,000 product advertisements a year in all media ranging from television to billboards created by the $250 billion U.S. advertising industry, said Strasburger, adding that children younger than 8 years are especially gullible.
He said advertisers and broadcasters bear a responsibility to teach and not just exploit child consumers.
"We'd like to see more birth control ads," Strasburger said, "and less ads for erectile dysfunction drugs because it makes sex seem like a recreational activity."
He said there was no evidence that advertising birth control products would increase promiscuity.
The pediatricians group urged the U.S. Congress or government regulators to restrict the airing of erectile dysfunction drug ads until after 10 p.m. when fewer children are watching television.
"I would like to see parents energized and more sensitive to the impact of media on kids," Strasburger said. "If they observed (American Academy of Pediatrics) guidelines to allow children no more than two hours of entertainment media a day, that alone would limit exposure."
Studies have shown a direct relationship between advertising exposure and youths who try smoking or drinking alcohol, he said.
Children who watch more television -- presumably exposing them to ads for fast food, snacks, soft drinks and candy -- are more likely to be obese, although no studies show a direct correlation between advertising and obesity, he said.
"If we can make the airwaves healthier, and make advertising healthier, then it makes more sense than putting 50 million children on a diet," Strasburger said.
An advertising-industry spokesman said food companies and advertisers already have responded to the obesity epidemic by promoting healthier products and by following recently revised guidelines for commercials directed at children.
"It's not like the industry is out there ignoring this," said Jim Davidson of the Advertising Coalition. "Everyone in the food industry knows we have a challenge in childhood obesity."
Tobacco and hard liquor have long been restricted from advertising on television and Davidson noted brewers have pledged not to advertise on TV programs where children make up more than half of viewers.
The statement, published in the academy's journal Pediatrics, also sought to limit televised ads for alcoholic beverages to show just the product and not bikini-clad women or cartoon characters, and to ban tobacco advertising of any kind.
Australia has banned all tobacco advertising, Strasburger said, and Sweden and Norway have barred TV ads directed at children aged 12 years or younger.
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I didn't ever think about this... quite interesting insights.
hmmm interesting to see yet another article about kid fears...
Quote:
Study: Tobacco promotions in ads, films snare youth
By Reuters | December 4, 2006
Hundreds of thousands of youngsters under the age of 18 start using tobacco each year as a direct result of it being featured in films, videos, advertising and give-away samples, a report said Monday.
Such exposure more than doubles the odds that any given youth will become a tobacco user, said the report from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts.
"A ban on all tobacco promotions is warranted to protect children," concluded the study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
It was based on an analysis of 51 studies conducted since 1981 covering 141,949 people. It examined exposure to tobacco advertising, promotions and cigarette samples, as well as pro-tobacco depictions in films, television and videos.
"Approximately 1.4 million children under age 18 in the U.S. begin smoking cigarettes each year, and half of these do so as a direct result of their exposure to tobacco advertising," said Dr. Robert Wellman, a co-author of the study.
Wellman said advertising today "fills the pages of magazines whose youth readership exceeds 20 percent, and tobacco use in movies is as pervasive as it was in the 1950s." REUTERS
bostonglobe.com
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Last edited by Cynthetiq; 12-04-2006 at 01:22 PM..
Reason: Automerged Doublepost
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