Fast Food TV Commercials, Featuring Toys, Luring Kids To Visit Fast Food Restaurants Frequently: Study

A new research claims fast food TV advertisements, especially those which feature toys, lure children to eat at the fast food restaurants featured in the commercials.

According to the study conducted by researchers at the Geisel school of medicine, Dartmouth University, the more the children views the fast-food commercials featuring toys, the more likely they are to manipulate their family to visit those fast food restaurants, reported TechTimes.

For the purpose of the study, the researchers analyzed all the fast food television (TV) advertisements that appeared on the children's channel as from 2009, where they found only two popular fast food chains advertising including Burger King and McDonald's.

"Almost 79% of the child-directed ads from those two restaurants aired on just four children's networks," Researcher Dr Jennifer Emond said.

The researchers examined 100 children of 3-7 years of age and their parents. The parents were asked to complete a survey that included questions about how often their children watched TV commercials included child-targeted fast food advertising, if their children requested visits to the two restaurants, if their children collected toys from those restaurants, and how often the family ate at those restaurants.

It was found that more half of the children surveyed requested to visit one of the two main fast food chains.  Around 37 percent of parents said they visited the restaurants advertised on TV more often than the other restaurants and 44 percent of the children requested visits to at least one of the restaurants.

Interestingly, out of the 29 percent of children who collected toys from the restaurants, around 83 percent requested to visit one of the fast food chains, said Philly.Com.

Emond said that their best advice for parents was to switch their child to commercial-free TV programming to help avoid pestering for foods seen in commercials.

The findings of the study were published in The Journal of Pediatrics.