See No Evil (2/3) By Bekki Stephenson

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3).

With children putting pester power on their parents, just what are the Government and advertising agencies doing to help parents say no to the junk food drug? In 2004, communications watchdog, Ofcom rejected a ban on junk food advertising claiming that it would not help in combating the number of obese children. Not surprisingly, the food and advertising companies, which spent £178.2 million on children's after-school (junk) snack products alone, welcomed the decision. The same companies spent just 2.8 million on fresh fruit advertising.

While the use of cartoon characters to promote poor-quality food continues to grow, Britain's biggest commercial children's television network, Turner Broadcasting, created a cartoon series starring healthy eating elves in an attempt to deflect criticism for screening junk food advertisements.

To redeem itself further, it offered the mini-series to terrestrial broadcasters for free. Its aim? To rebrand fruit and vegetables as an attractive alternative, in the same way Popeye promoted spinach to an earlier generation. Of course, Turner only began looking at the issue after the childhood obesity issue began to gather attention in the press and in government.

It started as a defensive measure when the first white paper on obesity was commissioned and our food ads looked like they were under threat, admits Richard Kilgarriff, head of the channel According to psychologist, Frank Kinnaird, people seem to be able to interpret cartoons, so there's something deep in our psyche in this form of communication. It is just another form of communication, but in simple format so that it can carry a simple message and hence be available to many quite easily. Children certainly appear to have strong reactions to cartoons and while in the form of junk food advertising this has negative effects, it can also be extremely valuable.

Government campaigns demonstrate the power of cartoons when used responsibly. The COI advertisement featuring a cartoon hedgehog mother stopping her child from becoming a deadgehog and similar material from Charlie Says (a series of animated cartoons from the 1970's dealing with child safety) add humour and colour to humanise and create a cut-through from other commercial messages.

Cartoon characters can be used to communicate in a number of different ways; awareness, education and behavioural change. Phil Edmonds, managing director at advertising agency Kastner and Partners argues that cartoons can work well in the first two instances since they can provide a memorable visual image that real life recording forbids. But to effect any change in behaviour the advertisers themselves must be credible. Carolyn Weston, Headteacher at Guestling Bradshaw CE Primary School, explains that from an educational stance cartoon characters can help the child express how they are feeling. However, when they affect changes in behaviour the effects are not always so positive. Children in the playground mimic the characters that appeal to them and some of the characters are not quite the behaviours you want them to act out. Children will mimic their heroes, unfortunately if the character is very physical they model this behaviour.

Today, the exposure of cartoons is wider than ever before. With the increase in technology have come digital television channels dedicated to children's cartoons, video games and incredibly life-like animation. Children like to fantasise about being in the superhero role, adopting their characteristics and using it in real life. This is particularly true of violence. Much research has proven that children act more aggressively after watching just an hour of television murder and mayhem and demonstrate an increase in childhood aggression.

Continued...... Next Page (3/3)

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