Poor Diet: are ads to blame?

Roderick White

WARC Hot Topics are the essential guide to debates in and around marketing. This paper explores the key issues surrounding obesity, with onward links to related papers on WARC and the Web.

Obesity - are ads to blame?

June 2003

An international problem

There is considerable concern in many countries about the growth of obesity. It affects people in both industrialised and developing countries, and its rise seems inexorable. It affects all ages, but raises especial anxiety in relation to children, since all the available evidence suggests that a fat child is likely to become a fat (or fatter) adult.

The causes of obesity are complex, and not entirely understood: changes in diet, and increases in total calorific consumption, are clearly one major factor; a decline in physical activity is another; and...

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