Black and Hispanic Youth Are Targeted With Junk Food Ads, Research Shows

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 1/18/2019, 8:53 p.m.
Click over to TV programming that caters to black and Hispanic youth and the commercials almost exclusively push fast food, …

Click over to TV programming that caters to black and Hispanic youth and the commercials almost exclusively push fast food, sugary drinks, bad-for-you snacks and candy, a new report shows. Junk food comprised 86% of ad spending on black-targeted programming and 82% of spending on Spanish-language television in 2017, according to the study released Tuesday. The report by the Rudd Center, a research and policy group working to combat childhood obesity, the Council on Black Health at Drexel University and Salud America! at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio analyzed the targeted advertising efforts of 32 restaurants and food and beverage companies that spent in excess of $100 million to reach children and teens just in 2017. The researchers also looked at exposure to ads and compared their findings to previous data collected in 2013. What they found was a growing disparity between what white youth and minority youth saw.

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