According to a study in The Lancet Planetary Health, it was unveiled that children observe as many as 554 brands a day as a result of marketing.
The research was carried out by a team at the University of Otago in New Zealand.
“The threat marketing poses to planetary health is just being realised. However, little is known about children’s exposure to marketing at an aggregate level,” said the study’s authors in their journal report. “Using an objective method of wearable cameras, we aimed to determine the nature and extent of children’s exposure to marketing.”
The study examined a sample of 90 children between the ages of 11 and 13.
As part of their research, the marketing brands observed among the children had been categorized into three groups: core food and social marketing messages, harmful commodities, and other.
Of the 168 children recruited, the data of 90 showed how 95 percent of children experienced the visual stimuli of 554 brands per 10 hour day, almost a brand a minute. Harmful commodities were more commonly seen than core food and social marketing messages.
“We found that children are repeatedly exposed to marketing through multiple mediums and across all settings, and our findings suggests that marketing privileges particular messages, for example, marketing of harmful commodities,” researchers determined.
“Given the key role marketing plays in establishing and supporting consumption norms, and perpetuating the normalisation of overconsumption which contributes to environmental degradation, these findings suggest an urgent need to reduce marketing to promote planetary health.”
