US children’s exposure to TV ads for unhealthy food and drinks still high despite progress

26 Aug 2024 --- US children under the age of 12 see more than 1,000 mostly unhealthy food-related ads a year, finds a new study conducted at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). While the figure remains high, the research team’s analysis of advertisements from 2013 through 2022 found a considerable decline.

“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,” says Lisa Powell, professor and director of health policy and administration at the UIC School of Public Health.

“This is important as the WHO 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,” she highlights. 

The research team points out that the existing approaches to tackling the issue have worked, but as children’s entertainment habits change with the evolution of technology, policymakers need to keep up.

“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. We really need to understand where else the food companies target kids and what they’re seeing.”

Current regulations

The US voluntary industry self-regulatory Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) was introduced by a group of F&B and restaurant companies in 2006. The pledge was to only advertise healthy options when at least 35% of a show’s viewers were under 12 years. 

In 2014 and 2020, CFBAI introduced revisions establishing nutritional criteria for what is unhealthy food that should not be advertised to youngsters. 

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, finds that companies’ self-regulation achieves a 95% decrease in the number of general F&B commercials shown during children’s TV programs.  

However, the analysis also finds that of the remaining F&D commercials, 60% were still for unhealthy products. Of the food-related ads seen by children, 90% came from watching shows with lower shares of a children’s audience. This is likely linked to the notable decline in F&B advertising during shows explicitly targeting children. 

Policymakers should do more

Therefore, the authors suggest that more should be done to regulate the advertising of unhealthy F&B during hours when children are most likely to watch TV and not just during shows specifically for children.

The study also finds that, overall, children’s time spent watching TV has declined, opening the door for further investigation into exposure to unhealthy F&B advertisements on other forms of media. 

Research has shown that despite the CFBAI’s tightening of rules surrounding commercials shown during children’s shows, F&B companies are finding loopholes in the definitions of what is an unhealthy food or a beverage.

Councils in the UK are also making progress in limiting the advertising of unhealthy foods to children.

By Milana Nikolova