A Television Advertising and Child Obesity: Characteristics and literature review regarding the Brazilian context

Child obesity is a social problem in Brazil and all over the world. It brings serious risks to people’s health and, although public administration provides expenses for treatments, leads the treatment of diseases derived from child obesity, which aggravates in adult age, to superlative expenses. Food advertising commonly takes part of the blame for the bad eating habits of children and, consequently, their overweight, due to the idea of them inducing the consumption of highly caloric products. This study aims to deepen the discussion about the relationship between television advertisements and child obesity in the Brazilian context. It was selected the CAPES platform as the main source for research, once it is the platform of highest representability of Brazilian researchers. Finally, under the light of literature review, one can notice the demystification of advertising as directly responsible for child obesity. It is also noticeable the emerging interest in mediatization as a cultural matter.