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Fast food restaurant McDonald's sponsors lots of junior sport initiatives.
IT’S the helping hand that is souring your child’s sporting success, nine in ten of the food companies sponsoring children’s sports development are promoting unhealthy food, new research shows.
Junk food companies are undermining kids even when they try to be healthy by using kids sport as a marketing opportunity for junk food, alcohol and gambling the Cancer Council says.
And some of the nation’s most iconic sports including swimming, Little Athletics, basketball, cricket and surf life saving are welcoming the sponsorship.
“We know that children are a major target market for advertising as they influence their parents’ spending, have their own money to spend, and have the potential to become brand-loyal,†the council says.
Fast food companies like McDonalds, soft drink manufacturers and breakfast cereal companies are using sponsorship to demand their logos appear on children’s sporting websites, they are getting naming rights to sports programs, getting their logos on sports uniforms and distributing branded sports equipment packs.
“McDonald’s took podium position in kids’ sports sponsorship, having been found at the time of the study to be sponsoring three separate junior sports programs across the country,†the council says.
Cancer Council NSW reviewed 56 websites of junior sports development programs in 2015 and identified 246 sponsors of which eleven were food and beverage, alcohol or gambling companies.
Ten (90 per cent) of the food companies involved in junior sports development sponsorship sold unhealthy food or drink, the study found.
Companies included McDonalds, Milo, Schweppes, Coopers, Kellogg’s, confectionary company Robbies, Nippy’s fruit juices and sports drinks and gambling company Lottery West.
Milo is another sponsor involved in junior sports in Australia.Source:News Limited
“Sponsorship and branding within sports can influence product recall and enhance the audience’s attitude towards that sponsor,†say the study authors.
“The recurrent exposure to brands and emotional attachment many children feel to their sport programs can normalise the brands and products of the affiliated companies,†the study found.
All of the unhealthy food and beverage sponsors identified in the study had logo placements on the homepage of the junior development sports program they were sponsoring.
About one third had naming rights to a program (e.g. Nippy’s Spikezone)
About one third gave out branded participant packs to kids (e.g. Milo for in2cricket and McDonald’s for Platypus Lagoon Swimming) and branded equipment (e.g. McDonald’s for junior cricket)
The study highlighted the extent that sports stars of the future were being targeted by unhealthy sponsors, including fast food, soft drinks and sugary cereal, the Cancer Council NSW says.
“As the nation gears up for Olympic fever, with Cadbury, McDonald’s and Coca Cola the worldwide sponsors, it is alarming to see that hundreds of thousands of our young sporting hopefuls and fans are continually targeted by these unhealthy brands at every level,†Director of Cancer Programs at Cancer Council NSW Kathy Chapman said.
Schweppes are also involved in sponsorship.Source:News Corp Australia
“We know that children are a major target market for advertising, as they influence their parents’ spending, have their own money to spend, and have the potential to become brand-loyal. The more children are engaged in a sport, sport team, or with an athlete, the greater the influence that junk food sponsorship will have on a child,†she said..
Interviews of 10-14 year olds have found they think of food and drink companies that sponsor their club and favourite team as ‘cool’ and they like to return the favour to these sponsors by buying their products.
Not all sponsors of kids’ sport are promoting unhealthy foods, with Jetstar and ANZ Bank supporting some kids’ sports development programs, the study found.
And Ms Chapman said governments should be trying to find ways to regulate this type of sponsorship to ban unhealthy food promotion using sport.
It’s unlikely the best athletes eat the junk foods that are associated with their sporting codes and events, the council said.
The Cancer Council says it wants sponsorship of children’s sport programs included in food marketing regulation to reduce the impact that unhealthy food marketing has on children.