Which foods do TV food advertisements entice our children to eat?

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to examine the content of food advertising in the children's and adolescents' program on the Iranian television. The study, a content analysis of advertisements, monitored 3 hours of children's and adolescents' TV programs broadcast on Channel 1 for one week [4-10 November 2000]. A detailed record of advertisement style and content was used for analysis. Advertisements for food products comprised 25% in number [second rank] and 21% in duration [third rank] of the total TV commercials during the monitoring period. Puffed cereals comprised the largest category [36%] of advertised foods. The messages most frequently used to promote the sale of a product were "quality" [59%] and "taste" [46%]. The most frequent appeals of food advertisements were "stimulation of hunger/thirst" [67%] and "attributed quality" [64%]. "A" puffed corn was the most frequent brand [23%] among the food brands advertised. In 37% of the food advertisements half of the nutritional properties attributed to products were scientifically untrue or misleading. Food advertisements aimed at children on TV were dominated by those for foods of questionable nutritional value, designed in a manner mainly to attract children