title: Food and beverage cues in children's television programmes: the influence of programme genre.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The link between childhood obesity and both television viewing and television advertising have previously been examined. We sought to investigate the frequency and type of food and beverage placements in children-specific television broadcasts and, in particular, differences between programme genres.
  
  
  METHODS
  Content of five weekdays of children-specific television broadcasting on both UK (BBC) and Irish (RTE) television channels was summarized. Food and beverage placements were coded based on type of product, product placement, product use and characters involved. A comparison was made between different programme genres: animated, cartoon, child-specific, film, quiz, tween and young persons' programming.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1155 (BBC=450; RTE=705) cues were recorded giving a cue every 4·2 min, an average of 12·3 s/cue. The genre with most cues recorded was cartoon programming (30·8%). For the majority of genres, cues related to sweet snacks (range 1·8-23·3%) and sweets/candy (range 3·6-25·8%) featured highly. Fast-food (18·0%) and sugar-sweetened beverage (42·3%) cues were observed in a high proportion of tween programming. Celebratory/social motivation factors (range 10-40 %) were most common across all genres while there were low proportions of cues based on reward, punishment or health-related motivating factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study provides evidence for the prominence of energy-dense/nutrient-poor foods and beverages in children's programming. Of particular interest is the high prevalence of fast-food and sugar-sweetened beverage cues associated with tween programming. These results further emphasize the need for programme makers to provide a healthier image of foods and beverages in children's television.
authors.affiliation: 1The Children's Ark,University Hospital Limerick,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Scully
authors.affiliation: 1The Children's Ark,University Hospital Limerick,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Orlaith
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.affiliation: 1The Children's Ark,University Hospital Limerick,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Macken
authors.affiliation: 4C-Star,University of Limerick,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Healy
authors.affiliation: 4C-Star,University of Limerick,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.affiliation: 3Centre for Interventions in Infection,Inflammation & Immunity (4i),Graduate Entry Medical School,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Des
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leddin
authors.affiliation: 3Centre for Interventions in Infection,Inflammation & Immunity (4i),Graduate Entry Medical School,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cullen
authors.affiliation: 3Centre for Interventions in Infection,Inflammation & Immunity (4i),Graduate Entry Medical School,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Colum
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dunne
authors.affiliation: 1The Children's Ark,University Hospital Limerick,Limerick,Republic of Ireland.
authors.forename: Clodagh S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: O'Gorman
mesh_terms: D001628:Beverages; D002182:Candy; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D004032:Diet; D019422:Dietary Sucrose; D057140:Fast Foods; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D040541:Marketing; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000209:etiology*; D062410:Snacks; D013690:Television; D006113:United Kingdom
chemical_list: D019422:Dietary Sucrose
keywords: Beverage; Children; Food; Television