'Food' through the Lens of Misleading Advertisements: A Comparative Analysis of India and United States of America

The consumers are the king of the market. The market gets affected with the choices of the consumers. However, sometimes, the choices of the consumer are influenced by the advertisements. One of the reasons is that the things are shown with perfection through media. Now-a-days the advertisements are important to make our choices for the food. Especially the kids below the age of 12 are so vulnerable as they are considered as minor in India as well as in USA. It is pertinent to note that these consumers are too young to take care of themselves. However, the choices of the kids are dependent upon not only the nutrition level but also upon the taste, looks of the food, or the complimentary toys, gifts etc. It means that the kids like to cherish the food as per their choices. The question comes, how kids get the knowledge of the food while sitting as home? The kids visit to the market in the company of the adults; however, they recognize the choice of their food with color of the wrapper, the structure etc. although they can hardly read or pronounce the product clearly. Thus, they get attracted to the unhealthy but tasty sugary food. How these kids make their choices brings a question mark in the mind of their parents as well. This is through the digital media, advertisement, commercials in cartoon etc. The advertising agencies know that the kids watch their choice of cartoon or programmes and they keep on telecasting the commercials accordingly. The objective of the paper is to explain the food through the lens of misleading advertisement. Secondly to make the comparative analysis on the choice of food by kids as consumers on grounds of misleading advertisement in India and United States of America. Thirdly, the misleading advertisements need to be strictly addressed by the laws in these countries. The paper explains a pertinent research question on the food that it is controlled by advertisement though false claims. Secondly, whether the nutritional value claimed in the advertisements are scientifically proved before being advertised by these advertising agencies. Thirdly, the paper is an attempt to explain the changing narratives of nutritional value of food in advertisement through misleading advertisement. The paper also explains the suggestions to stop these advertisements in India, and USA