Food advertising and childhood obesity?

Do you believe the food companies that target kids in their commercials and advertisements have that big of an impact on the ever growing epidemic of childhood obesity? How so? And when I say food companies, I mean cereal, soft drink, junk and fast food companies mainly. Anyone have an opinion?

I'm also talking about adolescents here...and many, many teenagers do have their own money and many, many spend it on fast food and other kinds of junk.

Parents buy food for their children. If parents had the cajones to say "No" to their children, childhood obesity wouldn't be a problem. Too many pushover parents buy their kids sugar-frosted crap whenever they ask and don't help the kids get any exercise. That is the real reason. You can't blame companies for advertising to a demographic that has no income of their own.

EDIT: Adolescents have parents too and parents can still say "No." A company bears no responsibility for an individual's lack of self-responsibility.

childhood obesity 100% the parents fault...

children are not born with a sense of self or what's important in life they model themselves after the parents and other influential adults that are around them frequently. it's up to the parents to make smart food choices for them and to teach them the importance of healthy eating and getting regular exercise. parents that feed their children fast food and junk food regularly and allow them to become overweight at a young age have failed them miserably, it's quite said and not fair at all to the child or children.

if the adolescent earns his/her own money and chooses to eat poorly that is his/her decision. however the parent(s) still have the power to allow them to bring unhealthy foods into the home. one of the many problems with the society in the US today is that many parents have lost control over their children or never had control. too many parents have taken the role of the "friend" instead of being a parent and laying down the law in the home.

I have lots of opinions on that one!!

1. cut off the TV on weekends, no more cartoons and their attendant advertising.
2. get the kids involved in something physical when they are not in school. ball teams, golf, tennis, badminton, something out in the fresh air.
3. do not give in to temper tantrums in the store. take the offending child to the car and don't let them go shopping with you for 3 months.
4. serve only good fingerfoods like fruits and veggies with dips for snack time. The dips can be sweetened or spicy. Cream cheese, peanut butter, salad dressing.

My children now get after me for buying a box of the sweetened nasty cereal I never let them have! they have restrictions on their children's food habits like I did.

i definetly think they target children- its all about the revenue and corporate responsibilty goes out the window
childhood obesity is complex though- its something to do with genetics and complex biology
obese parents pass on obese genes, and many children are obese for the same reason they have blue eyes or black hair
however i think that the 'average american diet' (way too many cals and snack foods, junk foods and fried foods) is definetly down to the food choices of parents- i think that its all in the parents hands to buy good food to ensure adequte growth, energy and nutrition...
when i have kids (hopefully not anytime soon, im a 16 yr old girl lol) i dont care how much they scream for chips or chocolate, i will feed them how i want to eat, vegetarian, organic, good fibre dense foods, vegies and fruit and lots of tea! (and the occasional milky bar)
yum

i have to blame the parents.
if your child is obese at an age when you are buying his/her food, it is not because of adverts saying "our chips are the best" it is because parents DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEED CHILDREN.

on the second point:
i am 13 and spend about a third of my money on junk food, but if it is healthy food the child is recieving at home and does exercise, it shouldn't affect the teens health. i am not super-fit but i am thin.

Nobody in our society wants to take responsibility for their own actions. The problem of childhood obesity can generally be blamed on the parents or on the child. My kid doesn't eat much junk because we do not let him. He also goes outside and plays because I turn off his video games and make him go do something else (weather permitting).

The company's target kids so they will bug mom&dad until they cave in & buy the junk. The primary problem is kids today simply are not active enough. The junk food is a real problem but not the whole problem. Turn off those x-boxes & send them outside to play. Instead of twinkies give them an apple or orange.

basically they are the ones to be held responsible besides the immature minds of the growing children who are not aware of the effects of calories intake and metabolism of them at the growing stages of life........and to add that its the group that is easily carried away too so its being targeted and contributing to the obese generation of the young ones

Food companies do have a big impact childhood obesity because they know what kids want to see, like the little characters and stuff like that.