Abstract:
Junk food consumption with its undesirable effects on the health of the youth is
prevalent among the young in Kenya. There are many factors that influence youth into
junk food consumption. Television is one of them. This study seeks to examine the
influence of television advertisements on junk food consumption among the youth. It
analyzes the strategies employed in presenting junk food advertisements such as
language use, the frequency with which the advertisements are presented and the
resultant attitude created that affects their food choices. The study is grounded on
Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication propounded in
1986 and extended in 2001. The theory provides a framework within which to
examine what influences people to act the way they do, for instance, what influences
the decisions they make and also explains the mechanisms that communication
employs to positively influence the attitude of consumers towards their products. A
structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from the teenagers. This study was
based on five public day secondary schools within Eldoret town. The five secondary
schools were arrived at through simple random sampling and were adopted as a
representative sample. The target population for this study was young people aged
between 13-17 years. Simple random sampling was used to arrive at a target
population size of 155. The researcher analyzed junk food advertisements using
content analysis. The data was analyzed and interpreted using both descriptive and
inferential statistics. This study found out that television influences teenagers into
junk food consumption through frequent airing of the adverts, the use of persuasive
language, pleasant images of the food and celebrities. It is recommended that parents,
guardians and all institutions concerned with health matters should educate the youth
on the negative effects of junk food consumption to enable them make informed
decisions. The Film Classification Board should compel programmers to place
disclaimers on junk food adverts. The findings of this study will enrich the
information available on junk food consumption patterns, more particularly from the
point of view of how linguistic features inherent in junk food adverts easily influences
teenagers into junk food consumption.