I want to have what he’s having

A bar of chocolate that takes you to the top of the class or a bully vanquished with powers gained from a cup of hot chocolate may be interesting advertising ploys to get children hooked to sugary treats, but research shows that the risk of disease among children is at a new high.

A recent study indicates that 54% of Indian children watching food commercials opted to buy the junk food shown in the ads.

Parents in Bangalore, however, say that though they keep a close watch on what their children eat, they are sometimes helpless in the face of fabulous advertising.

Some of them are taking precautions by monitoring TV viewing or refusing to buy everything that their children hanker for, but it is not easy.

But the most alarming trend today is the fact that high blood pressure among teenagers is now on the rise, says Sheela Krishnaswamy, diet and nutrition consultant.

“Earlier this was a problem related to old people, but today, it is seen among adolescents,” she says.

“This is mainly due to the high salt content in chips and junk food that children eat, which shows up as high BP when they become teenagers. We have been so busy looking at fat content in foods that we have paid no attention to the salt content.”

The risk of diabetes and obesity is also on the rise, and this is linked to the sedentary lifestyle of children and the habit of continuous TV viewing.

Children, moreover, cannot resist the lure of food commercials.

Says 12 year old Mayank Bhide, “I usually recall an ad by the way the hero reacts after eating a certain food. For instance, I love the ad where the expression of a boy changes when he bites into a burger.

He looks so happy that I want to have the same burger too. Some of my friends get their parents to buy all the new foods shown on TV and when they bring them to school, we get to taste them too.”

Parents often find that they have to give in to pressure sometimes.

Says architect Priya Kulkarni, “When children see a food commercial, or when their friends talk about it, they want to try the food too and it is tough to say no. I make sure that I don’t give my son such foods every day.

I restrict treats to once a week and I also keep an eye on the TV channels he watches. In fact we even make sure that we don’t subscribe to certain TV channels.”

Another young mother, Panchalee Thakur, who is a content consultant, finds that her daughters, Trisha and Tanisha (aged 8 and 5) are influenced by the storylines of certain ads. “My children have these grand notions of what will happen to them when they eat certain things,” she says.

“For instance, when my daughter ate some bubble gum shown in the ad as containing a magic genie, she was quite disappointed when the genie did not appear in front of her. Both my girls love to go grocery shopping with me and they are aware of all the new products in the supermarket aisles,” says Thakur.

But at her daughters’ school, the teachers make a note of what the children bring for lunch and tell them if they find foods that are not healthy. “Children take their teachers far more seriously than their parents,” she adds.

Those in the ad industry however feel that the proportion of children being targeted in ads is only marginally higher now, but what has probably increased is ‘awareness-holding advertising’ which could be responsible for any behavioral changes.

“It is a question of monitoring consumption,” says Niranjan Natarajan, founder and creative director, Why Axis Advertising & Design. “Disclaimers would be valid in monitoring exaggerated consumption.

Believe it or not, some ad people do have a conscience and working on ads to promote foods with high sugar content or any other unhealthy product does create a debate,” he adds.

According to Natarajan, humour and emotions like sibling rivalry or scoring over a bully are favourites and usually work in ads aimed at children. “On the whole, anything quirky is a good bet. If it has a catchy phrase or a distinct audio rendition it has a good chance of pass-along or recall,” he says.

“What is interesting is the role some schools are playing in encouraging consumption of healthier foods. For instances, they recommend juices more than aerated drinks and this is reflected in the lower sales figures of aerated drinks.”