1. Television Food & Beverage Advertising in 2006
Elena O. Lingas, DrPH, MPH
Lori Dorfman, DrPH
Berkeley Media Studies Group
Thanks to the University of Wisconsin NewsLab for its collaboration and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for its support.

2. IOM Report Key Findings
Food and beverage marketing targeted to children ages 12 and under leads them to request and consume high-calorie, low-nutrient products.
The dominant focus of marketing to children and youth is on foods and beverages sharply out of balance with healthful diets.
Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?
Institute of Medicine, Dec. 2005

3. TV Food & Beverage Ads: Research Questions
What were the major categories of food and beverage products advertised?
What is the nutritional value of the advertised products?
What kinds of persuasive tactics were used in the ads?

4. TV Food & Beverage Ads: Methods
January 1, December 31, 2006
Random selection of 42 days in 2006
Collected all national ad buys during each 24-hr period
Quantitative and qualitative content analysis

5. TV Food & Beverage Ads: Overview
Channels:
CMT with 7789 ads
MNTV with 33 ads
Brands:
McDonalds: 5378 ads
3 products with 1 ad

6. TV Food & Beverage Ads: Focus on Kids’ Cable
Cable channels: Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, ABC Family
409 different products
2200 different ads
Ads shown times each

7. Focus on Kids’ Cable: Top Product Categories
Product Category
Number of Products
Confectionary 97
Convenience foods 59
Cereals 55
Soups, breads, etc. 45
Chain restaurants 27

8. Focus on Kids’ Cable: Category Comparisons
Fruits & vegetables: only 3 appearances, raisins + canned tomatoes
Meat, poultry, fish: half of the category consists of hot dogs, beef jerky, and sausages

9. School Nutrition Standards
Focus on Kids’ Cable:
School Nutrition Standards
Product Category
Pass or Fail?
Confectionary
Fail: 83%
Convenience foods
Fail: 79%
Cereals
Fail: 48%
Soups, breads, etc.
Fail: 67%
Savory snacks
Fail: 88%
Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools: Leading the
Way Toward Healthier Youth. Institute of Medicine,

10. School Nutrition Standards
Focus on Kids’ Cable
School Nutrition Standards
Advertised product winners:
Sun-Maid Raisins
Yoplait Light Yogurt
Planters Pistachio Lovers’ Mix
Sara Lee Thick and Hearty Bread

11. Focus on Kids’ Cable: Animation & Characters
Animation is prevalent in ads for sweets and cereals.

12. Focus on Kids’ Cable: Physical Activity Children engaged in:
Sports, like skateboarding, karate
General running or dancing
Incidental activity, such as chasing Lucky through the forest

13. TV Food and Beverage Ads: Web address included
Almost all categories of products, excluding the water and tea categories, included Web addresses in their TV ads.

14. Food & Beverage Marketing Materials from BMSG
Digital Marketing Report and updates:
Fighting Junk Food Marketing to Kids toolkit and video: