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AED Aims to Make Youth Media-Smart About Food

Food companies spend enormous sums of money annually—between $10 to $15 billion—on advertising specifically to young people.

And if the skyrocketing rates at which children and adolescents in the U.S. are becoming overweight or obese is any indication, young people are gobbling it up.

So how do you get young people to make better decisions about what they eat?

AED is helping to answer that question by working with the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development to develop and implement an interactive media-literacy curriculum specifically designed for after-school programs.

Drawing on its deep experience in social marketing and behavior change, AED has developed a “first-of-its-kind” curriculum that helps young people between the ages of 11 and 13 to interpret the messages they receive from the media about nutrition and physical activity.

Exercising is part of the lessons in the

"Media Smart Youth" program.

Students learn about healthy foods as part of the after-school program, which will be available late this fall.

Read more about our work in health.

Read the related story and listen to the podcast: Food Marketing the Focus of Mapping Project in Delaware

For more information on Media Smart Youth, contact Carol Schechter.

Of course, advertising is not the only factor influencing young people’s eating behaviors.

But according to an article in the Feb. 10th edition of the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, it is a “potent force” behind what children and adolescents choose to eat.

By addressing the problem of childhood and adolescent obesity, “AED is tackling an issue that is at the forefront of public health debates,” said Carol Schechter, the director of the AED Center for Health Communication.

After piloting the program in 7 different sites around the country, AED received positive feedback from both the adults who facilitated the lessons and the students who participated.

“The program is a challenging one that engages youth immediately in fun activities that promote fitness and healthy eating,” said Regis Donovan, an organizer with the Rolling Hills Girl Scouts Council in New Jersey.

“Perhaps best of all are the feelings of self-worth they somehow leave with, that results from being challenged and the time spent in thinking about ways to be healthier and more fit.”

The students also said they learned beneficial lessons through the activities. “I learned a lot about eating right and exercising,” said 13-year old Kim Hardy in an interview with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, in South Carolina.

“The program also taught me how to deconstruct media messages when it comes to exercising and eating right.”

The curriculum package is scheduled to be released late this fall.

The program is unique, Schechter noted, in that it is teaching young people to determine how messages on nutrition and physical activity from the media affect them and influence their attitudes and behaviors.

Academy for Educational Development