Unhealthy Food Ads Dominate Spanish TV Shows For Kids

PRINCETON, N.J.Industry leaders have publicly recognized the need to reform food advertisements targeting children; however, the food and beverage industrys pledge to self-regulate is not effective, especially on Spanish-language television, according to a new study published in the Journal of Health Communication.

The study, Food Marketing to Children on U.S. Spanish-Language Television," was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Healthy Eating Research program, and is the first large-scale effort to analyze food and beverage advertising on Spanish-language childrens television.

According to the findings, more than 84% of all foods and beverages advertised to children on Spanish-language television shows are unhealthy. Among companies that pledged to reform their child-directed advertising practices to encourage healthier choices, 78% of ads for children on Spanish-language television and 69% of ads for children on English-language television were for unhealthy foods or drinks.

All children, and especially Latinos, are bombarded with television ads that sell junk food and sugary drinks," said Dale Kunkel, professor of communication at the University of Arizona and the lead author of the study. These findings are particularly concerning given the high rates of obesity among Latino youths."

Kunkel and his colleagues analyzed the ad content for 158 Spanish-language television shows for children and compared them with those found on 139 English-language programs. The ads analyzed for the study were collected between February and April 2009. The majority of child-directed ads (84% on Spanish shows and 74% on English shows) promoted Whoa products, such as candy, sugary cereals, fries and sodas, which fall into the poorest nutritional category as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Whoa products are high in calories, fats and/or added sugar. The DHHS recommends very limited consumption of such items.

They also found fast-food commercials accounted for 46% of all child-targeted food advertising on Spanish-language television, and 78% of all Spanish-language food ads used popular cartoon characters to market Whoa products. The same was true for 49% of English-language ads. Ads for healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, were extremely rare, accounting for just 1% or fewer of all ads in either language.

In 2006, the Council of Better Business Bureaus launched the Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, a voluntary pledge by major U.S. food manufacturers to advertise only healthier and/or better-for-you dietary choices to children under 12. More than a dozen companies now participate, but according to the study authors, many of the companies defined healthy" to include products that are high in sugar, saturated fats and empty calories.

Our findings suggest that the food and beverage industrys pledge to self-regulate is not effective, especially on Spanish-language television," Kunkel said. Most of the ads aimed at kids feature Whoa products, so clearly theres a big gap between the industrys definition of healthy and what nutrition experts say."

Previous research shows that the marketing of high-calorie and nutrient-poor foods and beverages is linked to overweight and obesity among children and youths in the United States.

The researchers said Latino children spend an average of five hours a day watching television and may be particularly vulnerable to ads selling an American lifestyle, one that features popularbut unhealthy foods. Latino children also have disproportionately high rates of obesity: in 2007-2008, 41.7% of Mexican-American children ages 6 to 11 years were obese or overweight compared with 34.5% of Caucasian children the same age.