[lg policy] Sugary Drink Makers Target Latino Youth, Report Says

[Harold Schiffman]

Sugary Drink Makers Target Latino Youth, Report Says

Written By Andrew O'Reilly

Published November 01, 2011

Fox News Latino


A new study conducted by Yale University suggests that soft drink and
other sugary beverage manufacturers target their marketing campaigns
to Latino and African-American children and teenagers. Beverage makers
primarily target young African-American children, who in 2010 tended
to view 80 to 90 percent more TV ads for these drinks compared with
their white peers. One example is African-American children and teens
viewed 2.5 to 3 times as many ads for Sprite soda compared with their
white youth peers, according to the study conducted by the Yale
University Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.

“The young people that companies view as an opportunity to grow their
business are also the first generation expected to live shorter lives
than their parents due to obesity and related diseases,” the reports
executive statement said. The report found that soft drink and energy
drink brands did not have a significant presence on Spanish-language
TV or radio, with just eight of the 32 brands studied in the analysis
advertising on national Spanish-language TV, and 15 advertising on
local Spanish-language radio.

Most beverage ads aimed at Hispanic youth were dubbed versions of
their English-language counterparts, said Jennifer Harris, the
director of marketing initiative at the Rudd Center. However both
Coca-Cola and Kool-Aid focused their advertising to the young Hispanic
market, with the soft drink giant accounting for approximately
one-third of young people’s exposure to advertising and Kool-Aid being
the only beverage brand to advertise directly to children or parents
on Spanish-language TV.

"Koolid marketed their product as a value product compared to other
more expensive drinks," Harris added. Researchers did find that the
sports drink Powerade was marketed more heavily to the
Spanish-speaking youth market than it did to English speakers.
Some of the television ads that equated soft drinks to energy boosters
frightened researchers. In one ad, a young child is seen at a kitchen
table studying and yawning when his mother walks in and hands him a
Coca-Cola to give him an energy burst

“That kind of disturbed us from a public health perspective,” Harris said.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/01/sugary-drink-makers-target-hispanic-youth-report-says/#ixzz1cYhYBBzR


-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal,
and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.
 A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman,
Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list