#play360

Dear Gus,

QUARANTINE DAY #8: Another family walk around the neighborhood. This time we saw Yiayia in her car, on her way to drop corned beef and cabbage off on our porch. It’s hard to see the people we love, but not be able to get close to them. She took this picture from her car window.

Dad.

Everyday kids are exposed to millions of advertisements, but how many of them are really promoting a healthy lifestyle such as exercise? 

Children are constantly seeing advertisement that makes exercise seem more and more of a "chore" rather than a necessity of life.  This is a crucial problem that needs to be reversed now, as this is when the body is still developing and needs to be healthy.  Studies have also shown that children who are overweight are much less likely to maintain a healthy weight as an adult. With that being said, advertisement to children is mainly "junk food."  This is being done by putting food at the eye level of a child on the shelves in bright color boxes, with catchy theme slogans, etc.  Instead of these types of foods being advertised non-stop to kids, we need to advertise healthy lifestyles. There are also rarely any advertisements towards children about exercise, which lead children to believe whatever negativity they hear or see about exercising. 

On the other hand, our country has come a long way in the past years with programs such as Play360. This has been very helpful to get children a little more active; however, programs like this should be much more advertised, so that kids are encouraged to go outside and get exercise.