Fast food advertising

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Fast food advertising is the promotion of fast food products and ventures through a variety of media. Fast food advertising campaigns are not as highly regulated as some other products, such as those imposed on alcohol advertising, but there are often public calls for their promotion to be minimised especially when aimed at children.

Contents

1 Campaign intentions

1.1 Target audience

2 Methods of advertising
3 Regulation and criticism
4 Sponsorship

4.1 Sport
4.2 Television

5 Famous campaigns
6 See also
7 External links

Campaign intentions

Ronald McDonald is an advertising mascot aimed to attract children to McDonald's restaurants.

Advertising campaigns for fast food restaurants have changed in their intent over time. Many modern campaigns stress the availability of healthy options after years of criticism for the harmful effect of a fast food diet. The rise in awareness of healthy eating and obesity has negatively impacted the business of these establishments, and their marketing campaigns have attempted to rectify this ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}.

Target audience

Some fast food chains target their advertising at children - an important market for them. McDonald's Happy Meals are one example, which includes a toy often tied in with a newly-released children's film. Ronald McDonald, first introduced in 1963 is a clown-like advertising mascot designed to appeal to young children. From 1996, Disney was an exclusive partner with McDonald's, linking their products together. They announced the end of this deal in May 2006, with some reports saying that Disney were worried about childhood obesity [link][link]. McDonald's have since been in talks with rival animation studios [link].

More recently, chains like Carl's Jr. and Burger King have directed advertising towards a different demographic – young teenage and college-age men – with trendy, often sexualised, imagery and messages that target men's supposed desire for large, meat-filled burgers and rich, satisfying food. In 2005, for example, Carl's Jr. debuted a controversial ad featuring a bikini-clad Paris Hilton writhing sensuously on an expensive Bentley luxury car while enjoying a large burger. The ad provoked outrage from a number of groups, but Carl's Jr. sales climbed impressively.[link]

Methods of advertising

Neighbouring fast food restaurant advertisement signs in Bowling Green, Kentucky

Common methods of advertising include:

Television commercial campaigns
Print media campaigns
Billboard campaigns
Event Sponsorship (sporting events and others)
Product placement in films and television programs
Various forms of branding, including clothing
Direction signs and posters, telling people how far the restaurant is

In February 2005 McDonald's used a viral marketing campaign during Super Bowl XXXIX – the Lincoln Fry. Two Pizza Hut marketing ploys have involved spaceflight. In 2001 they were the first to deliver pizzas to outer space when their vacuum-sealed food arrived at the International Space Station [link], just a year after agreeing a deal to have a 30-foot Pizza Hut logo placed on the side of an unmanned rocket [link].

Regulation and criticism

One of the main areas of regulation facing fast food companies is the advertising of "junk food" to children. In the United Kingdom the Children's Food Bill is intended to highly regulate the advertising of such food aimed at children [link], and many other countries are looking to introduce strict limitations on fast food advertising. Talks between the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the fast food companies were initiated to work together in an effort to improve childrens' diets, though Burger King withdrew for the discussions [link].

Some organisations have called for the watershed to apply to various unhealthy foodstuffs, including fast food. In June 2006, the FSA called for laws to prevent such food from being advertised on television before 9pm. They also called for the disassociation of television and film characters from fast food and stopping celebrities from appearing in such advertisements. [link] The impact of such campaigns is often denied by the fast food companies and the television networks that carry their advertisements [link]. Some networks have also said that tighter regulations would reduce advertising income and that would have a negative impact on the quality of children's programming [link]. In Sweden all advertising aimed at the under-12s is banned, including fast food adverts.

Faced with stricter television, radio and print regulation, many fast food companies have started making use of Internet advertising to reach their customers. [link]

The accuracy of the images of food used by the fast food companies is regularly called into question. The actual product is often described as being of poorer quality to that represented in the image. [link]

On 3 June 2004 KFC withdrew American television commercials claiming that "fried chicken can, in fact, be part of a healthy diet" after reaching a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission [link].

Fast food advertising is often complained about to advertising authorities, with members of the public most usually claiming that the wording is misleading. Not all the complaints are upheld. For example, between 11 September 2002 and 24 March 2004 the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK investigated complaints about six McDonald's advertisements, with two of them being upheld. The ASA used one of the upheld complaints as a case study [link].

In 2006 the European Union passed a new law regarding the labelling of foods – any food with a nutritional claim (such as "low fat") must also highlight that it is high in something else (such as "high salt") if that is the case. While fast food is often not given a traditional label, this may have an impact on advertising. [link]

Sponsorship

Sport

Several international fast food companies have sponsored sporting events, teams and leagues. McDonald's is one of the largest sponsors, having affiliations with the NHL, Olympic Games, and the FIFA World Cup [link]. Several companies, including McDonald's, Burger King and Pizza Hut, have a history of sponsoring NASCAR teams.

The ethics of fast food companies sponsoring sporting events has been called into question by many experts. It has been commented that unhealthy food and drink should not be associated with healthy sporting activities. [link]

Television

Some fast food companies sponsor television programmes. Domino's Pizza have sponsored Sky One's screenings of The Simpsons in the UK for many years. In 2005 Pizza Hut sponsored the same programme when it was shown on Channel 4 – the Sky/Domino's deal continued.

Famous campaigns

Famous campaigns include:

i'm lovin' it (McDonald's)
Taco Bell chihuahua (Taco Bell)
Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. (McDonald's)
Where's the beef? (Wendy's)

External links

"[Children's food choices, parents' understanding and influence, and the role of food promotions]" at Ofcom (UK)
"[Food advertising]" at Young Media Australia
"[Junk food ads to be banned from kids' TV]" at the Daily Mail, 27 March 2006 (UK)
"[TV fast food advertising ban rejected]" at the Sydney Morning Herald, 14 September 2005 (Australia)
"[Advertising budgets linked to fast food popularity]" at Norwich Union, 1 December 2005 (UK)

Product advertising
Alcohol advertising \| Cosmetic advertising \| Fast food advertising \| Gambling advertising \| Mobile phone content advertising \| Tobacco advertising See also: Advertising regulation

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