ArticleBMC public health2023
Differences in child and adolescent exposure to unhealthy food and beverage advertising on television in a self-regulatory environment.
Article in BMC public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Comprehensive review of carbonated soft drink consumption rates and their public health importance.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of brand advertising on children's food preferences and behavioural intentions: an experimental study.Public health nutrition · 2025Trial
- Food-related sponsorship of children's sports clubs in two Canadian policy environments: a survey of sports club representatives.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Children still exposed to high rates of unhealthy food advertising in Austria: does self-regulation work?Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- Restaurant marketing to kids in Canada: associations with restaurant consumption and appealing restaurant advertisement features in a nationally representative sample of Canadian young people aged 9-17 years.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Eating distractions as predictors of ultra-processed food consumption and Mediterranean diet adherence in adolescents.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The impact of the social media industry as a commercial determinant of health on the digital food environment for children and adolescents: a scoping review.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Examining differences in exposure to digital marketing of unhealthy foods reported by Canadian children and adolescents in two policy environments.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- Associations between Meal Patterns and Risk of Overweight/Obesity in Children and Adolescents in Western Countries: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies and Randomised Controlled Trials.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- How frequently is alcohol advertised on television in Canada?: A cross-sectional study.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2024Article
- Differences in children's exposure to television advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages in Spain by socio-economic level.BMC public health · 2024Observational
- The impact of characters like Tony the Tiger and other child-targeted techniques used in food and beverage marketing.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFood and beverage promotion is a contributor to children's dietary behaviours, and ultimately, downstream health consequences. Broadcast television remains an important source of such advertising. The objective of this study was to examine and compare children and adolescent's exposure to food advertising on television in Canada over an entire year in a self-regulatory environment.
methodsTelevision advertising data for 57 selected food and beverage categories were licensed from Numerator for 36 stations in Toronto, for 2019. The estimated average number of advertisements viewed by children aged 2-11 and adolescents aged 12-17 was determined overall, by food category, and by marketing technique. The healthfulness of advertisements was also assessed using Health Canada's Nutrient Profile Model.
resultsOverall in 2019, children viewed 2234.4 food ads/person/yr while adolescents viewed 1631.7 ads, exposure for both groups stemmed primarily from stations with general appeal, and both age groups were exposed to a range of powerful marketing techniques. Exposure to advertising for restaurants, snacks, breakfast food and candy and chocolate was high among both age groups and the healthfulness of most advertised products was considered poor. Adolescents were exposed to 36.4% more food products classified as unhealthy, had higher exposure to all marketing techniques examined, and were exposed to substantially more child-related marketing techniques compared to children.
conclusionChildren and adolescents were heavily exposed to food advertisements on television in 2019. Despite current self-regulatory policies, children's exposure to unhealthy food and beverages remains high. Differences in exposure to food advertisements by food category and healthfulness may suggest that adolescents are being disproportionately targeted by food companies as a result of self-regulatory marketing restrictions.
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