Childhood Obesity Ethical Issue

Childhood obesity has escalated over three decades. Nearly one-third of children in the United States are currently obese or overweight. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at the ages of 6-11 it has more than double since 1980 (February 2004, p.1). As of today there are about 10% of children ages 2-5 and 15% of ages 6-19 who are overweight. “Obesity is classified as a disease, measured by the body mass index (BMI), the ratio of weight to height. If the child are above the 95th percentile for their age and sex they are consider to be obese. Researchers examine obesity from different perspective, “ranging from health sciences and public health, to child development and family relations, to advertising and mass

Instead of just using the media to advertise unhealthy display, they are using it to advocate obesity awareness. The social marketing campaign thinks in a ethics perspective, that “if they consider that the positive consequences (the effectiveness) of a campaign may balance the negative outcomes (for instance, threatening the public), the non-consequentialist paradigm of social marketers will be challenged” (October 2014, Volume 124, Issue 2). “The authors showed that the vast majority of adults (86.3 and 90.7% depending on the type of message) did not object to the use of threat appeals in public service announcements, even if directed at teenagers” (October 2014, Volume 124, Issue 2). This explains that the social marketing campaigns might be relatively consequential to their judgement of acceptance of the controversial campaigns. Individuals will be able to alternate their ethical acceptance for campaigns that achieve their social goal. The CDC launched a campaign called Verb to encourage active lifestyles from ages 9-13. The National Cancer Institute’s created a 5 A Day campaign, to promote fruits and vegetables. By having these campaign, it provides not only awareness to the children but to their parents (February 2004, p. 9). This will encourage children to incorporate physical activities and healthy eating habits in their daily