JUNK FOOD ADVERTISING HAS A HARMFUL EFFECT ON SOCIETY

Word: Junk, Meaning: something of poor quality or trash. The word itself says it all. We eat junk food and this junk food is gradually eating away our health. This food simply looks and tastes delicious it has no other redeeming qualities. Advertising junk food has its effects and causes on society.

Children and youth are the primary target group for fast-food advertisers, owing to their buying power, access to television, and social media. Between cartoons most of the time there is some junk food commercials shown, which have a cerebral effect on children where they are tempted to have that specific food shown is the parents’ responsibility to educate their children what is healthy for them and what is not, even if they are shown something that they desire, they can’t always get what they want.

Today in this fast-paced world in most of the families both the parents work for which they cannot cook at home so the best option they could think of is frozen food or takeaway. This is damaging to their health regularly since junk food has more sugar, calories, and fats, as well as very few good nutrients and a lack of dietary fibers. Leading to various diseases like obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

These companies target such families through their advertisements. The companies also target youngsters and children. As it is their business you cannot restrict them from advertising their product for, they are in the market to earn revenue and advertising is the easiest way to market their product. Government can impose strict regulations for it like there should be no advertisement on kids’ channels regarding any product. Secondly, it should take notice of Fast-food chains and must ensure that they use good quality products Moreover, what government could do is strictly notify the industry to show the ingredients, nutrition and its true measurements for the consumer must know what is he consuming.

There is also undeniable evidence that fast food is harmful to our bodies. In my view, banning all ads is an overreaction; we live in a free country where individuals should be responsible for their actions; but, limiting children’s exposure to advertising and educating customers of what they are purchasing are preferred ways to solve the problem.