Cereal Advertising to Children – Press Release

January 2025

High-sugar breakfast cereal brands target their TV advertising directly to children under age 12, resulting in greater household purchases of these unhealthy children’s cereals, according to a new study from researchers at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health at the University of Connecticut.

The study’s findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, revealed that advertising of high-sugar children’s cereals to children – but not to adults – leads to increased purchases of advertised children’s cereals in a large sample of households with children. These findings provide further evidence that the food industry’s promises to self-regulate child-directed food advertising will not have a meaningful impact on children’s diets until companies stop marketing unhealthy foods directly to children altogether.

Rudd Code: 222501