Background: Public health experts raise concerns about adolescents' and black youth's greater exposure to TV advertising for unhealthy foods and beverages compared with children and white youth.
Objectives: Examine how television-viewing patterns and rates of advertising during targeted programming contribute to this greater exposure.
Methods: Nielsen panel data provided viewing times and amount of food advertising viewed on U.S. television in 2008 and 2012. Researchers compared results by network type (black-, child- and youth-targeted), age group (preschoolers, children and adolescents) and race (black and white youth).
Results: Food advertising exposure increased with age for both black and white youth, but black youth viewed approximately 50% or more ads than did white youth of the same age. Higher rates of food advertising on youth-targeted networks explained greater adolescent exposure. However, greater television viewing and higher rates of advertising on youth- and black-targeted networks both contributed to black youth's greater exposure. From 2008 to 2012, increases in food-ads-per-hour increased exposure for all youth.
Conclusions: Food advertisers and networks, especially those targeting adolescents and black youth, must do more to reduce advertising that negatively impacts young people's health. Furthermore, reducing commercial-television viewing by black youth may help reduce health disparities affecting their communities.
Keywords: Food advertising; TV viewing; adolescents; children; health disparities.
© 2016 World Obesity Federation.