A study conducted in Australia monitored television for one straight week in summer, and found that 50.1% of fast food restaurant advertisements were broadcast during children's programming in Sydney. While the study acknowledges the difficulty in directly linking advertising to obesity, it made the point that consistent exposure to unhealthy foods promotes an unhealthy lifestyle, as opposed to a healthy lifestyle kids ought to be considering.
     Another study also noted that while food advertising does cause childhood obesity, it is hard to see just how the relationship is formed. So, J. Lennert Veerman and his colleagues conducted a study in 2009 to see how much limiting food advertising would reduce childhood obesity, particularly children in the U.S. aged 6-12. Their model predicts that if we were to decrease exposure to zero, the existence of childhood obesity would lower 2.6% for boys and 2.4% for girls.
     This past June of 2012, the University of British Colombia revealed results of a similar study. Researchers discovered that in Quebec, Canada, a 13 year stoppage on fast-food advertising to children decreased fast-food expenditures by 13%. The ban on advertising also found that children in the province consumed a whopping 2-4 billion fewer calories. To further emphasize the impact of the ban on fast-food advertising, it must be said the Quebec has the lowest childhood obesity rate in Canada.

     Although the research I found doesn't explicitly explain how the relationship between fast-food advertising and childhood obesity works, the studies showing how obesity would decrease after eliminating advertising support my hypothesis that fast-food advertising leads to childhood obesity. The findings emphasize the fact that we should reduce fast-food advertising to children to help minimize worldwide obesity.

     I found a video that may help us understand why children are attracted to fast food when they see them on TV. Most of us know that real fast food isn't nearly as perfect-looking as it is shown on TV, but it's likely that kids don't. Here's a short video that shows the process of making food look yummy on TV.