The number of food and drink advertisements that children see on children’s television programs has dropped significantly since food and drink manufacturers pledged to stop advertising unhealthy products on children’s television programs. But according to a study by the University of Illinois Chicago, children under 12 still see more than 1,000 food advertisements per year, most of them for unhealthy products.

For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, researchers analyzed ratings and advertising data from 2013 to 2022. The study authors found that a drastic reduction in food and beverage advertising during children’s programs did not completely prevent children’s exposure to advertisements for products high in saturated fat, trans fat, total sugar and sodium.

“Children still see about a thousand advertisements per year on other programs, and most of those ads are still for unhealthy products,” said Lisa Powell, distinguished professor and director of health policy and administration at the UIC School of Public Health. “This is important because the World Health Organization has recognized that reducing unhealthy food and beverage advertising to children is a key strategy to improve children’s nutrition and health.”

In 2006, a group of food, drink and restaurant companies committed to only promoting healthy products on children’s television, i.e. programs where at least 35% of viewers are under 12 years old. Subsequent revisions in 2014 and 2020 established nutritional criteria that determine what is considered unhealthy and therefore should not be promoted to young audiences.

Using ratings data from the Nielsen Company, UIC researchers found that after the changes in corporate self-regulation, the number of general food and beverage advertisements during children’s programs decreased by over 95%. However, they found that 60% of the remaining food and beverage advertisements still involved unhealthy products.

And overall, children under 12 still saw an average of more than 1,000 food advertisements per year. As food and drink advertising during children’s programs declined sharply, up to 90% of these advertisements came from programs with a smaller proportion of child viewers.

This change suggests that regulations against advertising unhealthy foods and drinks at times when children are likely to watch television are more effective than specifically focusing on children’s programs, the authors write.

The researchers also found that there was a persistent racial difference in exposure to food advertisements. While the number of these ads seen by both black and white children declined from 2013 to 2022, black children saw significantly more advertisements than their white peers, partly due to spending more time watching television.

In general, the amount of time children spend watching television has declined, suggesting that there is a need to study children’s exposure to advertising in other media. Powell’s group is in the early stages of a new project to measure the advertising children are exposed to on social media platforms and in digital entertainment.

“We know that kids’ media usage is changing. They’re spending more time on their mobile devices, whether it’s tablets or phones, and they’re seeing a lot of ads,” Powell said. “We really need to understand where else the food companies are targeting kids and what they’re seeing.”

In addition to Powell, UIC co-authors include Julien Leider, Rebecca Schermbeck and Aline Vandenbroeck, and University of Connecticut co-author Jennifer Harris. The study was supported by grants from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.