View Full Version : Ad targeting youth to use coffee?
I realize that kids drink lots of caffeinated drinks. Too many of them. But this morning I was surprised to see a Hills Bros. coffee ad in the Sunday morning paper that has the picture of what appears to be a mother and a daughter drinking coffee in a tent. The title says "Trust the Taste. Share the Tradition." The girl looks to be somewhere around 8-11 years old. I find this form of advertising disgusting. >:(
Coffee has a calming effect on children:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/mom-year-son-coffee-daily-treat-adhd/story?id=14462919
It is a drug, but a benign one, and certainly more natural than Coke or Mountain Dew. Or any of the many psychoactive drugs marketed by Pharma to parents.
From Kidzworld:
Is Coffee Good for Kids?
According to one researcher – Dr. Tomas DePaulis – many parents who keep their kids as far away from coffee as possible could be wrong. He says coffee isn’t that bad for kids and, like in adults, it can help improve concentration and may help children do a little better on tests for this reason.
In an interesting finding from Brazil, kids who drink coffee with milk are less likely to have depression than other children.
I find many ads offensive for a variety of different reasons, but I don't have a problem with that one.
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I think it's kind of strange that they're targeting kids that young for coffee, and I also generally am extremely mistrustful and disturbed by the emotional sell ("…share the tradition") with regard to targeting children.
That being said, I agree with Jane. Coffee has a lot of health benefits to it, especially compared with soda and other empty calorie snacks, beverages and processed foods which advertise heavily to kids. I'll trade you one Hills Bros ad for two Pepsi.
I've known several families to adopt children from central America and they have all talked about how much coffee the children are given in the orphanages.
ApatheticNoMore
6-7-15, 1:34pm
meh coffee only improves concentration *in adults* within a very limited window. Small amount of caffeine = improved concentration, more caffeine (and it's not much for me - 1 full mug of coffee could easily do it - tea of course less so) bouncing off the walls unable to concentrate at all. Such bouncing off the walls might be ok for extremely creative work (yes I think it can stimulate creativity), but I have to sit still in an office so ..... Sure you ability to process this might be slightly better when your young (boy does it take a nose dive when you hit 30!). Sure even in my early 30s I used to consume more, but I would always wonder why anxiety and restlessness would peak a few hours after getting into work so I was hardly capable of work at all.
Since I am an adult I try to keep any intake very small (closer to a shot glass if it's fully caffeinated coffee, closer to a cup with tea of course - and as much chocolate as I want), to keep within the window where it's beneficial, as too much will also produce insomnia. It's very easy to start consuming that much. Stimulants may work slightly different with a true A.D.D. diagnosis (more beneficial as far as I've heard) and they probably are better than the drugs for that. I've never been formally diagnosed (though I've heard even getting bored at a boring job could be ADD and then I surely have it!).
Benign yea right, I mean yes I think it can be consumed relatively responsibly, but tormenting insomnia recently from consuming slightly too much and I don't think having kids suffering that would be benign. I think the impact on kids could be very bad. It could make them feel very much like they were kind of nuts, with the bursts of extreme energy to the point of agitation and anxiety, the inability to sleep etc., the withdrawal symptoms (although I've never consumed enough to have any even when I went cold turkey except extreme tiredness). And for the kids to understand they aren't nuts but it's the caffeine may not be easy, and the whole being an emotional roller coaster could easily become part of the self-image, as a kid it's harder to make sense of all that is going on in your body and emotions. I always felt like I was going nuts as a kid anyway.
I was a coca cola addict as a teenager, it was horrible, first off I was chronically tired all the time, so I'd consume more and more cokes, because I thought they'd give me energy, I was up to consuming 5 or 6 cans a day, but I'd still be chronically tired (probably all that sugar, I don't have a horrible reaction to small amounts but that's massive amounts), it was a viscous circle. Oh the chronic tiredness as a teenager was probably the extreme neverending stress of being a teenager just burned through me, and all those cokes and a junky diet (hey I lived on fast food then), and maybe a little bit hormones driving me crazy. I have much more energy as a middle age person. I'm not exactly Little Miss Energy now, but look back and it's incomprehensible how profoundly tired I always felt then.
My daughter has been drinking coffee since she was quite young, and it does not seem to have had any ill effects on her.
I can't imagine a young child having an interest in coffee, unless it has a lot of sugar in it.
I can't imagine a young child having an interest in coffee, unless it has a lot of sugar in it.
We don't generally put sugar in our coffee here either. It's quite dark, thick, tasty stuff.
We've always offered our child samples of "real" food since we was an infant, and she has developed quite robust tastes.
Chicken lady
6-7-15, 4:44pm
My grandmother started giving me coffee with milk - no sugar- when I was 8. By the time I was a teenager I was drinking it black. Most of my friends drank soda.
I remember one trip with the girl scouts where we stopped to eat and I ordered black coffee with my food. All the adults were amused at me "trying to act grown up" and waiting to see the face I'd make when I tried it. They were dissapointed, although one asked me later how I liked my coffee. Her tone tipped me off to why they were staring when I got it and I just shrugged and said it was ok, but my mom's was better - it tasted too much like the styrofoam cup.
These days I drink about three cups a day. My only objection to my kids drinking it was the need to make a second pot.
awakenedsoul
6-7-15, 9:43pm
I realize that kids drink lots of caffeinated drinks. Too many of them. But this morning I was surprised to see a Hills Bros. coffee ad in the Sunday morning paper that has the picture of what appears to be a mother and a daughter drinking coffee in a tent. The title says "Trust the Taste. Share the Tradition." The girl looks to be somewhere around 8-11 years old. I find this form of advertising disgusting. >:(
I can't get off of coffee. I've tried to quit at least twenty times. I drink two mugs a day, with cream or milk and Agave. For me it's very addictive. So, I can see why you don't like the ad, Cathy. I started drinking coffee when I was seventeen. My best friends introduced me to it. I felt so grown up, making coffee with them and drinking it together. It was a social thing. At one point I was drinking ten cups a day. (with lots of cream and sugar!) That's when I was a teen ager. I've known other women who were that way with Diet Coke.
It's easy to get hooked on coffee. I kind of wish I'd never started. At least that's my only vice...
Tried twice this month to not have my morning cups and had an immense headache and lack of energy within hours. Of course, when I have four cups of the strong stuff (Italian or French Roast), I could move mountains and cannot stop talking. What a legal drug.
I remember drinking milky tea with my grandmothers, and I've heard of children in various countries drinking "coffee milk" as a matter of course. I drink the equivalent of one or two cups in the morning now. I've not found it to be a gateway drug. :~)
It IS a drug. I've always thought if an enemy nation wanted to take over the U.S., they should focus on cutting off our coffee supply. We'd all be too tired and have too horrible a headache to fight. (or we would all be fighting among ourselves). :~)
I just think it's best to not get our children used to certain things that have such a potential impact on them........which includes caffeine, sugar, preservatives, additives, etc., etc., etc.
And I hate seeing commercials that involve children. I see TV ads for various products, where the owner of the business uses his children/grandchildren in the ads. I don't like that. But mostly, I don't like ads that encourage children to use things that could potentially cause them problems.
sweetana......I've heard that if you really want to "detox" from caffeine, you need to do it slowly over several months. Just decrease the amount of coffee/caffeine a little at a time. But something funny about caffeine for me.........the more I drink, the more I want. And there's a point at which it all makes me very tired.
I have to admit, caffeine sure got me through some bad migraines, after I had to stop the med because it was causing rebound headaches and was addictive...........but so is caffeine to an extent. But it was sure nice to have instead of a migraine. In order for it to work on the migraine though, I could only have it for that use.
I think we all have different tolerances to caffeine.
Anyhow........I still think the ad I was talking about is inappropriate.
If our enemy cuts our coffee supply - then I get to rule America! Never learned to like it so I will be zipping along in charge of the country. :D
i would think that ad is odd, however my kids drank coffee pretty young. i don't even drink coffee but they found it helped with their asthma and was much better than soda.
My son (now he is 18) got this amazing coffee from his sister and it needs grass fed, unsalted butter to go with it. it is his big treat rather than all the time. so not only is he a coffee drinker but a foodie coffee drinker.
Hmmm....I would have thought it would make asthma worse, since it constricts vessels. I'm glad it worked for them.
Has anyone seen the ad in which Kevin Bacon tries to promote the idea that bacon is part of a healthy breakfast? I found that hilarious. Bacon is the most wonderful food on the planet and it needs no spokesperson, but ... Healthy? Animal product, saturated fat, monstrous quantity of sodium, nitrates and preservatives, and high-heat frying. There's something objectionable for everyone!
Back on topic ... if I ruled the world, commercials aimed at kids would be limited to vegetables, civic good deeds, and demanding better education. Coffee can wait.
Better that than soda - and definitely over products like Red Bull.
If our enemy cuts our coffee supply - then I get to rule America! Never learned to like it so I will be zipping along in charge of the country. :D
If our enemy cuts our coffee supply - then I defect to Italy or Turkey or Greece or Brazil or any other coffee-loving country.
iris lilies
6-8-15, 2:53pm
If our enemy cuts our coffee supply - then I get to rule America! Never learned to like it so I will be zipping along in charge of the country. :D
I probably wouldn't mind if you were in charge, just don't tax me overly much, please.
and I would be using my best egg that allowed me to retire early on black market coffee.
ApatheticNoMore
6-8-15, 3:35pm
if I ruled the world, commercials aimed at kids would be limited to vegetables, civic good deeds, and demanding better education. Coffee can wait.
if I ruled the world advertising would be banned.
But I don't think it's that utopian for kids to grow up without using drugs in their childhood. I mean not kids but teenagers will use caffeine if they want to, it's a very socially accepted drug, so .... But don't kids have enough to deal with without stimulants? And one would at least have to explain how to use them, ie not to use caffeine past a certain point in the day as it will affect sleep, if you are having trouble sleeping maybe it's the caffeine and you should cut back or quit, the more caffeine consumed the more effect it has, to understand that caffeine may make you jittery and unable to concentrate and hyper and nervous and if you feel that way, maybe it's the caffeine .... That's just the basics so kids can actually understand the physiological effects.
Are we talking coffee here, or caffeine? I don't like the taste of coffee, though I love the smell. (I don't like the taste of alcoholic drinks, either, though I love the smell.) Anyway ... I take 1/4 of a NoDoze pill in the morning (about 50mg caffeine, depending on how "carefully" I split the 200mg tablet), and that gives me the "energy" I need for the day, or maybe another quarter-pill later in the day if I need/want it. I generally do not drink colas -- if I want a carbonated drink, I drink Zevia, which is sweetened with stevia and except for the cola flavor, has no caffeine.
Is there "something" in the coffee itself that is good for you, not counting the caffeine?
Polyphenols, I think. Clearly, I have to step up my consumption! :D
http://www.lifeextension.com/Magazine/2012/9/Protective-Effects-Of-Coffee/Page-01
TVRodriguez
6-9-15, 3:15pm
In our Latin culture, it is very common for kids to drink coffee. I didn't start drinking coffee, however, til I was 37. In fact, two of my three kids started liking it before I did. They don't drink it regularly, but they love to get sips of coffee. If they ask for a cup, I tend to make them a cup of decaf and add milk and sugar. But I have some friends who were awakened as kids every morning before school with a cortadito (espresso with sugar and milk).
JaneV2.0 -- thank you for that link! Very interesting. My DH loves loves loves coffee -- but he is extremely high energy (always has been) and doesn't need the coffee at all and I'm always bugging him about that (but he loves the taste), but I did notice some capsules of coffee extract that I'll have to investigate further (for me, not for him :D ) and hope they don't cost an arm and a leg! So far I haven't been able to interest him in decaf coffee, but to no avail. Wish me luck!
I started drinking coffee at my grandmother's house when I was about 6. I've been a life-long drinker but never went overboard. Can't see that it hurt me at all.
I didn't start drinking coffee until I was in my mid-20s. Now I typically have 2 cups each morning at work. On the weekends I typically take a nap in the mid-morning instead. When we're on vacation I sometimes have it, sometimes don't. I'd be concerned about kids drinking very much of it, but truthfully it's undoubtedly better for them than sugary soda. (unless they pour a cup of sugar in the coffee...)
I'm generally leery of any ads targeting kids, and old enough to remember when 'kid's' cereals still had the word sugar in their name. Anyone want some Super Sugar Crisp? Or how about some Sugar Pops?
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