Junk food is one of the mainstays of food advertising to children, who form the key market for junk food advertisers.

Some of the more concerning marketing tactics are the ones that play on children’s desire to be popular. This is something advertisers are supposed to avoid but they clearly still resort to this tactic.

They imply certain cereal bars will make you more popular, that it’s much cooler to throw away fresh fruit and instead eat a processed product.

Children’s and adolescents’ interest in sportspeople, musicians, cartoon characters and superheroes has been relied on by advertisers for a long time.

It continues to be the linchpin of most advertising directed at children.

via Pester power: why junk food ads and children shouldn’t mix.