Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States

"The past couple of years have seen a flurry of activity from policymakers concerned about food advertising to children...The purpose of this study is to paint a picture of the current landscape of food advertising to children on TV, to help inform the efforts of policymakers and the food and media industries and to provide a benchmark for measuring
change in the years ahead..."

Released at a forum in Washington, DC (United States) on March 28 2007 that drew U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, food industry leaders, health officials, and consumer advocates, this 59-page study combines content analysis of TV advertisements with data about children's viewing habits to provide an estimate of the number and type of ads seen by children of various ages. While the study does not address the issue of whether food advertising to children on TV is increasing or decreasing, it does indicate that food marketing is a predominant part of the television advertising landscape for children in the United States, and shows that young people's exposure to such messages is substantial; in contrast, their exposure to countervailing health messages (e.g., public service announcements, or PSAs) on TV is minimal.

The study is based on a sample of 1,638 hours of television content (May - September 2005), including a detailed analysis of 8,854 food ads. Because children's viewing habits vary substantially by age, the studies' findings are presented separately for children ages 2-7, 8-12, and 13-17. In brief, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF)-funded research finds that, within the United States, food and beverages continue to dominate the television advertising landscape, particularly for "tweens" (those aged 8-12), who watch a great deal of television and therefore see so many food ads that they may be the group most affected by food marketing.

Specifically, food was found to be the most widely advertised product on the networks in the study; among children's shows, fully half (50%) of all ad time is devoted to food. Of all food ads in the study geared toward those ages 2-17, 34% are for candy and snacks, 28% are for cereal, and 10% are for fast foods, whereas 4% are for dairy products and 1% for fruit juices. Not a single ad was identified that promoted consumption of fruits or vegetables. Only a relatively small proportion (15%) of the ads currently depict a physically active lifestyle. One in five (20%) of the ads include a push to a website; a similar proportion (19%) appeal to young people with enticements such as free gifts or sweepstakes (19%) that they can win by purchasing the product, an issue that has been a concern to policymakers in other countries, such as Great Britain, where such practices were recently prohibited. About one in ten (11%) ads analysed in the study were found to have a tie-in to a children's TV or movie character.

The study suggests that policymakers limit their expectations of public service campaigns on fitness and nutrition. Given these campaigns' reliance on donated ad space (or limited budgets), children were found to see very few such messages. For example, children under 8 see one PSA on fitness or nutrition for every 26 food ads; for "tweens", it's one PSA for every 48 food ads; and for teens, it's one for every 130 food ads. To cite one example, whereas those aged 8-12 see an average of 21 food ads a day on TV (which, in the course of a year, translates into an average of more than 7,600 food ads), children in this same age group see an average of one PSA on fitness or nutrition every 2-3 days (which, in the course of a year, translates into an average of 158 PSAs on fitness or nutrition). In short, "while public service ads on fitness and nutrition may well play an important role in helping to fight childhood obesity" (in the words of one author, Victoria Rideout), children and youth in this country do not seem to be seeing too many of them.