Kids Now Seeing Fewer TV Ads for Junk Food
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Aug. 27, 2024 -- Children are seeing far fewer ads for junk food during kids’ TV shows, a new study finds.
The number of food and drink ads during children’s programs has dropped by more than 95%, according to researchers’ analysis of television Nielsen ratings.
This decline occurred following a 2006 pledge by the food industry to stop advertising unhealthy foods during kid’s TV shows, researchers said.
However, researchers found that children younger than 12 still see more than 1,000 food-related ads a year, and that 60% of them are for unhealthy products like sugary sodas and salty or fatty snacks.
“Kids are still seeing about a thousand ads per year on other programs, and the majority of ads that kids see are still for unhealthy products,” said researcher Lisa Powell, director of health policy and administration in the University of Illinois-Chicago School of Public Health.
“This is important as the World Health Organization has recognized that reducing children’s exposure to unhealthy food and beverage advertisements is a key strategy for improving both children’s diets and health,” Powell added in a university news release.
A group of food, beverage and restaurant companies pledged in 2006 to advertise only healthy products on TV programming where at least 35% of viewers are under 12. They later revised their pledge in 2014 and 2020 to establish nutritional criteria for what qualifies as unhealthy.
But researchers found that as much as 90% of the food ads kids see are run during shows with lower child-audience shares.
This shift suggests that regulations might want to focus on advertising during hours when kids are more likely to watch television, rather than focusing specifically on children’s programming, the researchers said.
The results also showed that Black children saw significantly more food ads than white kids, due in part to more time spent watching TV.
The new study was published Aug. 22 in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Future regulations should also consider food ads that run on other forms of media, such as streaming or social media. In general, children spend less time watching TV these days, researchers noted.
“We know that the media kids consume is changing. They’re spending more time on their mobile devices, whether it be a tablet or a phone, and they’re seeing a lot of ads,” Powell said. “We really need to understand where else the food companies target kids and what they’re seeing.”
Sources
- University of Illinois-Chicago, news release, Aug. 22, 2024
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted August 2024
Read this next
Food Choices Could Influence First Period, Research Shows
WEDNESDAY, May 7, 2025 — What your child eats could play a role in when they start puberty, a new study shows. Researchers found that girls who ate more inflammatory foods...
Nuts, Seeds OK For People With Diverticulitis, Study Says
TUESDAY, May 6, 2025 — Patients with diverticulitis often try to control the digestive condition by cutting nuts, seeds and popcorn out of their daily diet. But...
Too Much Cinnamon May Interfere With Some Medications, Study Shows
MONDAY, May 5, 2025 — Consuming too much cinnamon might affect how your body absorbs some medications, new research shows. The study — published in the June issue of...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.