Sponsored by famous food and pseudoscientific ads

currently, ads for functional foods, wonderful products and incredible substances guaranteed by the face of a celebrity are very, very common. But what hides behind these products?

Let’s play generalize. Only a little. Are all bad ads? Of course not. But what ads sponsored by famous people? Not so fast. A recent study by the Langone Medical Center at New York University says “almost all foods announced by music stars are dangerous to health“. It is not the only analysis that warns of misleading advertising that tries to cover some of the most serious problems of consumer products. And this is a danger, especially for the younger ones, who are mostly influenced by this type of advertising. But nobody is surprised that a sponsored food has no nutritional or scientific basis, right? It should.

“No, do not eat that,”

Among the premises of the Langone Medical Center team is the fact that young people are particularly susceptible to advertising. Many of the products whose target audience is among children and younger people use the familiar face of rock pop stars to promote it. A measure that also is quite effective, according to marketing studies. This should not have any problem if they preached were normal food. But they are not. According to the descriptive study, which analyzed who and what was advertised between 2000 and 2014, including any platform: radio, television or Internet; found that all foods are announced by the famous candy, soda and fast food . There are very few cases of famous advertising, for example, fruits, vegetables or cereals. In general, almost all foods you see in ads Celebrity refer to superfluous products nutritionally speaking.

The study also analyzed the nutritional value they have most food advertised But it does not stop there. The study has not stopped only in the descriptive. It has been further analysis, checking the nutritional value having most of these advertised foods. 81% of them does not meet (or even close) recommended nutritional profile. On the contrary, rather they turn away from him with a tremendous excess sugars, fats and other unhealthy substances. This particular alarm to researchers, who warn of the damage you are doing this kind of advertising among young people, where increased rates of obesity and other nutritional problems are increasing.

Ads (pseudo) scientists

But not only “bad” nutrition are filled with ads. Unfortunately, products and pseudoscientific concepts also flood the media. It is quite common to find advertisements on food supplements or functional foods endorsed by celebrities who do not get stuck in “sell” their immense and beneficial properties. But the truth is that the vast majority of them do not have any scientific background real. Jose Manuel Lopez biochemist Nicholas, discussed in his blog scientific fallacies such disclosure on numerous occasions. One of the last articles written by the author denounces the absurd amount of products advertised almost concealed by chains like Telecinco within its programming. But he has also spoken more than once on the responsibility of celebrities themselves when making ads.

“Education to citizenship is important, but it is useless if it is not accompanied by certain legal measures. it is necessary that, as I have told you today, institutions such as the National Commission Markets and Competition take action on the matter and severely punish offenders. otherwise the trap will always be ahead of the law and not only your wallet, but also your health will suffer. “

But, as it clear on more than one occasion, both on his blog and in some of the talks which imparts throughout the Spanish territory, there is a responsibility breached by the regulation, which should be more strict and firm with the measures imposed against the media and misleading advertisements. Meanwhile, all kinds of figures have been provided to announce actual nutritional products whose background is, at best, nonexistent. Examples have very clear with the famous case of “Bimbo bread” with Eduard Punset. Or the recent “bread for Runners”, announced by Jordi Cruz.

Revidox, Actimel, Triptomax, Eficalcio … are just some examples of pseudoscientific advertising. Advertising that many famous dare to put a face without flinching. So we can see that not only the music stars that make ads that might be considered bad. At the beginning we said that we will generalize a bit. Are there beneficial foods or at least not misleading announced by famous? Probably. But the fact is that according to the data and studies, the vast majority seem to use the profile of a famous to hide its shortcomings. So, playing the game of generalization, we can think “if it announces a famous, probably not good” and almost certainly acertaremos.