Food Advertising During Children's Television Programming on Broadcast and Cable Channels

Abstract

The rise in the number of overweight and obese children in the United States is recognized as a serious health threat. Among the factors contributing to this increase is the preponderance of food marketing on television targeted at children. Previous content analysis studies have identified patterns of food product types that are commonly associated with unhealthy diets, but few have attempted to independently evaluate the nutritional quality of advertised foods. This study identifies the nature and extent of food marketing messages presented during children's television programs, while also classifying the products advertised using a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services consumer food rating scheme. The findings indicate that food advertising accounts for nearly half of all commercial messages on children's programs. An average hour includes 11 food ads that account for 4:25 of total ad time. Broadcast channels deliver more food advertising than cable channels, although the types of food products marketed on both channels are highly similar. The overwhelming majority of foods ads directed to children are for high-calorie, low nutrient food products that should not be part of a regular diet. These data provide a baseline for evaluating anticipated future industry efforts at reform, such as attempts to comply with a recent Institute of Medicine (2006) policy recommendation that food marketing to children should be balanced between more healthy and less healthy food products within two years time.

A content analysis of food advertisements appearing in parenting magazines

“…We categorized each item according to degree of nutritional quality based on the Institute of Medicine's nutrition standards for foods sold outside the school meal programme and Percent Daily Values based on a 8368 kJ/d (2000 kcal/d) diet applied to the specified serving size (31,32) . In line with studies in the published literature (11,(33)(34)(35) , we created a 'healthiness' formula in which products were scored in relation to dietary recommendations. Our formula included only nutrients reported for .70 % of the total sample of products.…”

Evaluating Industry Self-Regulation of Food Marketing to Children

“…[6][7][8] By contrast, genuinely healthy foods that should be part of a regular diet are rarely advertised to children. 9,10 A 2006 IOM report triggered ongoing public debate about the issue, 11,12 warning that unhealthy food advertising puts child health at risk. 2 The IOM recommended that industry should improve their practices, noting, If voluntary efforts related to advertising during children's television programming are unsuccessful in shifting the emphasis away from high-calorie and low-nutrient foods and beverages to the advertising of healthful foods and beverages, Congress should enact legislation mandating the shift on both broadcast and cable television.…”

Children, Adolescents, Obesity, and the Media

“…70 More than 80% of all advertisements in children's programming are for fast foods or snacks, [71][72][73] and for every hour that children watch TV, they see an estimated 11 food advertisements. 74 Although exposure to food ads has decreased in the past few years for young children, 73 it has increased for adolescents. 75 In 2009, the fast-food industry alone spent $4.2 billion on advertising in all media.…”