Is Shrek, Scooby Doo, Dora the Explorer Making Your Kids Fat?

By: Neil Katz
Topics

Shrek (AP Photo/ DreamWorks Animation)

NEW YORK (CBS) Like parents don't have enough to worry about. Now a new study says they need to be on the lookout for cartoon characters pushing their kids to eat junk foods.

"We found that when kids are presented a food with licensed characters they think the food actually tastes better," Christina Roberto, M.S., a doctoral student at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity told CBS News. "And the characters are plastered over mainly foods with poor nutritional quality."

Roberto's study, published in Pediatrics, found that more than half of the kids they queried thought food that had cartoon characters on the packaging tasted better. And up to 85 percent of them, when given the choice, reached for products with characters emblazoned on the box.

The study looked at the effects of Dora the Explorer, Shrek, and Scooby Doo, characters which are popular with young kids. They didn't find that any of the characters had a stronger effect than the others.

The important message, says Roberto, is that parents need to be aware and hopefully regulators will step up.

"I think knowing how powerful these characters can be, parents can pay more attention and not get blindsided by their power," she says. "They can flip the box over and check it out."

But Roberts recognizes that it's not easy.

"When the kids really want Dora the Explorer, that's a tough battle to have in the super market," she says.

Roberts says the food industry knows very well what they are doing and feels regulators need to help.

"Parents need advocates," she says. "Let's get them [the characters] off those foods and then get them on healthy foods."

The American Psychological Association has called for a full stop to marketing food products to children, according to CNN.

Is the government listening? Perhaps parents should send a cartoon character to make their case.

4 Comments +

Add a Comment


by cathyinmaine July 10, 2010 8:30 AM EDT: Simply saying "No" works for me and I have 4 who beg and plead for certain items with characters on them.; Reply to this comment


by lilbear925 June 21, 2010 3:36 PM EDT: None of these fictional characters are making your kids fat! What your kids eat and the amount of it is making your kids fat. Excuse me, but allowing your kids to eat anything they want, when they want it and sit on their butts in front of the TV is what makes kids fat. Not cartoon characters. Parents are responsible for their kids' food intake, so if your kid is fat, it is YOUR fault, not the TV's.; Reply to this comment


by mollydtt June 21, 2010 2:53 PM EDT: As a parent, I can honestly say that parents can control what their kids eat.
Sorry, but blaming the artwork is not even logical.
Parents can make sure their kids get exercise, eat fruits and drink milk and water instead of soda or juice.
I'm horrified that packages of food with cartoon characters are intimidating parents. An occasional treat is just that--an occasional treat.
It's the same as suing fast food places for causing people to eat more calories than they need.
A kid that holds his mom hostage in the supermarket over Dora the Explorer is going to be an obese adult with no self control and no idea that they can't consume 3000 calories at each meal.; Reply to this comment


by jsf14 June 21, 2010 2:31 PM EDT: I'm in favor of regulation of banks and other financial institutions whose workings I don;t understand, of oil companies who do things I can't see, of polluters I cannot control. But NOT of the artwork on food packagers. I understand that bananas are healthier than cornchips. While my kids are too young to understand this or care about it, I decide what to buy. If my kid wants food wrapped in Dora, and I decide to indulge this desire, I can put bananas in a Dora lunchbox. A company might make mune selling cartoon character sandwich bags.; Reply to this comment