The number of children who are overweight or obese has risen in the last 20 years. This is a complicated problem with no easy answers, but some have proposed that television advertising is to blame. Specifically, they point to food advertising aimed at children theorizing that children are easily influenced by these ads and that eating habits are formed in the early years. Overweight children are at risk to become overweight adults.
     The Federal Trade Commission has just released a new study of television advertising to children which offers some insight into this issue.  The FTC had conducted a similar study in 1977 as it was considering rules and guidelines for advertising on children’s programming. The new study, based on Nielson Media Research data, compares advertising exposure in 1977 with that of 2004. Some of the significant findings of this study were:

• Children age 2 to 11 watch an average of two and one-quarter hours of ad- supported television daily or about 16 hours a week. They watch a total of 23 hours of television weekly, so 70 percent of what they watch contains advertising.
• Teens age 12 – 17 watch about two and one-half hours of ad-supported television daily.  Adults watched nearly four and one-quarter hours of ad-supported television daily.
• Saturday morning television between 8 am and noon contained only 4.3 percent of the total advertising seen by children age 2 - 11. Sunday morning viewing contributed 2.5 percent of the ads seen. The majority of advertising seen by children was from 4 pm to 8 pm (26 percent) and from 8 pm to midnight (a whopping 29 percent.)
• Children 2 – 11 were exposed to 5,500 food ads in 2004 while in 1977 they watched 6,100 food ads, representing a decrease of 9 percent in food advertising over the last 30 years.
• The same categories of food ads were seen in 1977 as in 2004, including snacks, breakfast food, and restaurant products. There has not been an increase in advertising of “low nutrition foods.”
• Non-Food advertising has increased, specifically ads for other television programs, movies and audio entertainment – all sedentary activities.

    The FTC has concluded that children get half of their food advertising exposure from non-children’s programming. Some groups have proposed government restrictions for advertising food on children’s programs as a way to slow the increase in childhood overweight. Pressure has been put on food manufacturers to reduce advertising to children or make their products more nutritious. The Coca-Cola Company has a fifty-year old policy of not advertising to children under 12 and other companies may consider policy changes.
    The conclusion I draw from this research is that children are watching too much television and are encouraged to participate in sedentary activities like more television, movies and video games. It’s not the food advertising that seems to be the issue, but the fact that the whole family is sitting in front of the television instead of participating in physical activity. Families need to re-examine how they spend their leisure time and parents need to set an example for young children.