Actual Nutritional Information of Products Advertised to Children and Adults on Saturday

Abstract

We sought to determine the types of commercials and the actual nutritional content of foods advertised to children during Saturday morning and to adults in evening prime time on 4 television broadcast networks. Food commercials for morning programming were greater in number and repetitions and took up more time overall. Foods advertised in the commercials were coded for actual nutritional content. In general, the morning commercials advertised more unhealthy food products than the evening commercials. Specifically, the morning food commercials advertised unhealthy products in terms of sugar and cholesterol. Viewers of both time periods were subjected to advertisements for unhealthy foods. These types of influences on children's health and development have a potentially negative impact and should be empirically investigated by child health care professionals.