In order for you to be able to understand how I found myself in the vortex of understanding children as consumers and how to influence their attitudes and food choices from the marketing perspective with the aim of obesity prevention, I have to look back on my life path. I would divide my life into 2 equally long phases. From my birth and my short stay in socialist Yugoslavia until 2007, it represents the first phase that I remember as a period where for any slightly more unusual thing, toy or food you had to travel to Graz, Trieste, Vienna and similar destinations. It was a period where all children grew up equally in terms of having material things, consuming similar foods, having similar events and experiences, and playing similar sports. In that period of children’s misbehavior, it stood out to provoke one or two overweight children you had in class or at a sport you played. In that time, the greatest gastronomic pleasure was a visit to McDonald’s, the only available food franchise. For most children, that visit happened a couple of times a year, in my case 2 times in 15 years ???? Even today I am grateful to my parents for that, because the habits acquired in childhood are practiced in adulthood, which in my case was really confirmed by this example. In the following transitional years, Croatia slowly opened up to international standards and achieved a significant “boom” in the period from 2000 to 2007. Tourism gained momentum again, shopping centers began to open, and well-known retail chains and brands as well as food franchises arrived.

After 2007, when I already stepped into my student days, the exponential growth that Croatia experienced led to the adoption of some new habits and lifestyles. Fast food and ordering has become more available than ever, and fast-paced life and digitization have brought new trends, both in Croatia and globally. Food is ordered daily, with deliverymen scurrying around cities like headless flies from 10am to 4am. And so, adapting to the new trends that we imposed ourselves, we led ourselves into a trap. The group of unhealthy habits and obesity that has taken off, and today we are talking about every third child in the context of obesity. What used to be provoking one or two obese students in the class, today has grown to 8-9 obese children per class who are not provoked. I’m not saying that provocation is okay and justified, but I want to say that standards have changed and physical appearance has gained a completely different perspective in which obesity is generally accepted. Today, from father perspective, I can clearly see the situation from all angles. Talking to friends, I realize how much eating habits have changed in one generation. When our parents were our age, restaurant food was consumed on special occasions, and our generation today eats fast and processed food at least 3-4 times a week. Other days, grandmothers cook. The same grandmothers who, as our mothers, cooked daily. Thinking about it, I can’t get out of my head the thought of what will happen in the next generation when today’s moms, who don’t cook, will have to help their children and their grandchildren, and today they just buy ready-made, processed and unhealthy food …

And so, following what was happening around me from the perspective of an athlete trying to resist new trends, I got the opportunity to study children as consumers and as part of my doctoral dissertation to spend a lot of time in their company absorbing their perspective and trying to understand how they found themselves (not their own fault) where they are. By developing interventions as the final act of my doctoral study of children as consumers and writing my dissertation, I tried to change children’s attitudes and food choices towards healthier and more sustainable choices. The results are satisfactory, but if I manage to change the attitudes, habits and choices of your children in the long term in real, not experimental conditions, I will feel proud and satisfied. Understanding children’s attitudes and adopting healthy eating habits is crucial in the prevention of obesity, and this global public health problem is already the basis of studies by many doctors and health institutions. My perspective is psychological and marketing, and I try to understand children as current and future consumers. Therefore, through my website I communicate to parents, educators and marketing experts methods of encouraging children to make healthy food choices. If you consider this area important, continue to follow my work, because only by working together can we bring about a positive change that, in my opinion, is much needed!