TV ads for junk food deliberately target minorities in the U.S.
According to a study, African American and Hispanic children and adolescents in the U.S. are disproportionately exposed to advertisements for unhealthy foods. Researchers are calling for an end to these «biased advertising practices.».
As a study shows, dark-skinned teens saw more than twice as many adverts for unhealthy products such as fast food, sugary sodas, sweets and snacks as their white peers in 2017. The authors call on companies to abandon their "disproportionately one-sided advertising practices" and focus more on marketing healthy products.
Figures confirm the trend
"About 86 percent of food and restaurant industry TV advertising in 2017 targeting African-American children and youth in the U.S. was about unhealthy foods. For the Hispanic population, the corresponding figure was 82 percent," according to a joint report by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Conneticut, the Council on Black Health at Drexel University and the organization Salud America! from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
"Our analysis shows how important these target groups are for the industry when it comes to selling unhealthy foods. However, if companies really care about these customers, they should be more careful not to try to tempt them into buying products that are bad for their diet and health," criticizes study author Amelie Ramirez.
Only three percent for healthy food
According to the report, the food and restaurant industry spent a total of almost eleven billion dollars on TV advertising in 2017, around 1.1 billion dollars of which was spent on African-American and Hispanic target groups. In the same period, only 195 million dollars was spent on healthy foods such as water, nuts and fruit - that's just three percent of the total spend.
"The food industry has unveiled healthier products and publicly affirmed its commitment to the well-being and health of its customers. However, eight out of ten dollars are still spent on advertising fast food and other unhealthy foods," says Jennifer Harris of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. (Markus Steiner/press release)
