if you've got kids watching TV and who
doesn't you've got kids watching junk
food ads with their dancing leprechauns
and cuddly polar bears companies do a
great job selling their products in the
most entertaining and memorable ways Wow
and for young kids this kind of
marketing is especially hard to resist
today billions of dollars are spent on
marketing sugary cereals soda snacks and
fast food and it goes beyond TV ads to
movie tie-ins product placements and
celebrity endorsements embrace your
pests but live for now popular junk food
products often use cartoon characters
and even have their own websites apps
social media pages and interactive games
so how can parents steer kids away from
all the calls for unhealthy snacks quick
first avoid the ads use DVDs or DVRs to
skip the commercials also watch the
websites kids visit since some popular
gaming sites are really entertaining
commercials in disguise next ID those
ads when you watch TV or play online
with your kids point out the products
and logos used as props in the storyline
and let them know the goal of all this
is to sell something finally talk about
the star factor lots of companies want
their product to appear cool what album
Super Bowl remind your kids that the
athlete tweeting a photo with his
favorite soft drink is probably being
paid to do so while many food marketers
are starting to make an effort to be
more responsible in their marketing
packaging and ingredients it's still
important to talk to your kids about
which of these efforts produce genuinely
healthy results and which are simply
trying to cash in on a trend for more
tips and advice check out our mobile app
or visit us a common sense
argh I'm Lori Burke
you