Food-related advertising geared toward Mexican children.
BACKGROUND
Overweight and obesity have dramatically increased in recent years. In 2006, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among 6- to 12-year-old children was 26% in Mexico. Food advertising has shown to be a contributor to childhood obesity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency and types of food advertisements geared toward children living in Baja California.


METHODS
Two local channels and three national channels, during a period of 7 h on weekday afternoons and 6 h on weekend mornings, were recorded for 7 days. A total of 235 h were recorded and analyzed.


RESULTS
A total of 8299 advertisements were registered; 22% were food-related and 50% were geared toward children. The average of food-related advertisements (FRAs) per half an hour was 4, and half of them were geared toward children. During the time that children may be watching television, 50% of all FRAs were potato and corn chips, desserts and cakes, juices, sweetened cereals, candies, cookies, sweetened beverages and fast foods, which comprises a higher percentage of adult-oriented FRA (32 versus 22%).


CONCLUSIONS
Children are systematically more exposed than adults to advertisements for high-energy-dense foods.
Ramírez-Ley
Karla
K
Facultad de Medicina y Psicología, Graduate Nutrition Program, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
De Lira-García
Cynthia
C
Souto-Gallardo
María de las Cruces
Mde L
Tejeda-López
María Fernanda
MF
Castañeda-González
Lidia Magdalena
LM
Bacardí-Gascón
Montserrat
M
Jiménez-Cruz
Arturo
A
D000329:Advertising / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D005502:Food / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans; D040541:Marketing; D008800:Mexico; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014743:Videotape Recording