• Broadcasting & Cable, Wednesday, September 5, 2007 12 PM

While food companies have been cleaning up their marketing to kids, a study from a few years ago shows just how far they needed to go. Published in the medical journal Pediatrics, data from 2003-2004 shows that almost all the TV food ads seen by young kids and teens were for products high in sugar, fat and/or sodium. The nine-month survey of the nutritional content of food ads in the 170 top-rated kids shows concluded that 97.8% of those viewed by children 2 to 11 were for foods with poor nutritional content.

And the percentage would likely have been even higher if ads for fast-food restaurants had been included, according to study author Lisa Powell. (A separate fast-food study is in the works.) "Clearly our kids are getting bombarded with poor nutritional messages every day," says Risa Lavizzo-Mourey of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the study as part of an initiative against childhood obesity.

For Adonis Hoffman, senior vice president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, "the advertising industry welcomes additional scientific guidance on responsible advertising to children. This study adds to the body of research on this important issue and should be viewed in the context of the recent Federal Trade Commission study which had notably different conclusions."

Read the whole story at Broadcasting & Cable »