A quarter century of TV food advertising targeted at children

Objective: To analyze current trend in television advertising targeted to c hildren, and to compare results to the historical perspective of the last q uarter century, Methods: Sixteen videotaped hours of Saturday morning child ren's programming on 4 network channels were evaluated for commercial conte nt based on Food Guide Pyramid and USDA Child Nutrition criteria. Results: Of 353 commercials analyzed, 63% were for food products. Overall nutritiona l quality of commercials remains poor, promoting a high-fat, low-fiber diet , Conclusion: Children's television food advertising continues to send inap propriate nutrition messages with no improvement noted in 25 years, As it a ppears this is unlikely to change, health educators are challenged to invol ve parents in helping their children become more educated consumers.