Study says kids’ TV beset by ads for junk food

WASHINGTON – Kids are being fed a steady diet of junk-food ads by the TV channels they watch, according to a new study.

Researchers said Wednesday that children ages 2 to 7 see a dozen food ads a day, with nearly half of the commercials aimed at kids and teens selling candy, snacks, soda and fast food. The review by Indiana University and the Kaiser Family Foundation of more than 8,800 ads didn’t find a single commercial for fresh fruits or vegetables.

The Kaiser authors didn’t call for any policy changes. Nonetheless, the results are likely to add to the growing pressure on advertisers and networks to cut back on the promotion of junk food – or have regulators do it for them.

“If there’s no progress, that’s certainly what faces the industry at the end of the day,” Adonis Hoffman, senior vice president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said after the report’s release.

The study follows a 2005 report by the federally funded Institute of Medicine that tied food commercials to childhood obesity. In December, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended a ban on junk-food ads during programs for young children.

Ten of the largest food and beverage advertisers, including Coca-Cola Inc., PepsiCo. and Kellogg Co., banded together and announced a voluntary initiative in November. Under that program, companies will be invited to announce what individual steps they will take by August.

That program allows a lot of leeway. For example, participants are being asked to promote healthy diet choices or lifestyles in half their ads. But they could slip the messages into commercials for products such as candy bars or chips, according to C. Lee Peeler, chief executive of the National Advertising Review Council and a leader of the program.

Kaiser’s Vicky Rideout, co-author of the new study, said her data was intended to satisfy policymakers who wanted to know “how much food advertising children see on TV, for what types of food, and what types of appeals are used to market those foods to them.”

“Childhood obesity isn’t just the latest hot topic,” Rideout said. “It’s a very serious problem that’s having a devastating effect on the lives of millions of children and families in this country, and that could impact our country’s health care system for many years to come.”

Of all food ads targeted to kids and teens, the most common are for cereal, at 29 percent. Fast-food restaurants and candy each make up 10 percent, gum accounts for 9 percent, dine-in restaurants 7 percent and fruit-flavored snacks 6 percent.