Exposure to Food Advertising on Television, Food Choices and Childhood Obesity

To date, there has been insufficient research on the direct effects of food marketing on children’s diet and diet-related health, particularly in non-experimental settings. In this paper we employ the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey – Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) to estimate how various types of food advertising to children on television affect children’s food consumption and body weight. Our study provides new estimates of the potential effect of food TV advertising on children’s food choices and in turn body weight. We find evidence that soft drink TV advertising is related to increased consumption of soft drinks among elementary school children (Grade 5). Mild effects of exposure to food TV advertising on body weight can be seen, but overall results from these analyses are inconclusive.