title: Food-related advertising geared toward Mexican children.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina y Psicología, Graduate Nutrition Program, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
authors.forename: Karla
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ramírez-Ley
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Lira-García
authors.forename: María de las Cruces
authors.initials: Mde L
authors.lastname: Souto-Gallardo
authors.forename: María Fernanda
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Tejeda-López
authors.forename: Lidia Magdalena
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Castañeda-González
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bacardí-Gascón
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Cruz
mesh_terms: 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