Where children and adolescents view food and beverage ads on TV: Exposure by channel and program
In response to increasing pressure from the public health community, many marketers of food and beverage products have joined the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) and voluntarily pledged to market only healthier dietary choices to children. However, recent studies conclude that these pledges have not substantially reduced youths’ exposure to TV ads for foods and beverages with high levels of sugar, saturated fat, or sodium. In this report, we examine where children and adolescents viewed the food and beverage advertisements they saw on television in 2011. Using Nielsen data, we quantify the average number of food and beverage TV ads viewed by age group (ages 2-5, 6-11, 12-14, 15-17) in total and by product category, as well as the channels and programs where these ads appeared.