Learning Junk Food in School: Advertising to Kids

About half of all middle schools and high schools in the US permit advertising of candy, fast-food restaurants, and/or sodas at school! This practice is most common in Ohio (nearly 70 percent of schools) and least common in New York (24 percent).

Does advertising affect our kids’ food choices? Of course, it does! And in more ways than you might think. The Institute of Medicine has found that advertising to children affects their preferences, purchases, and consumption – changing their habits for different food and beverage categories, in addition to specific product brands.

Some estimate that each year, nationwide, for every dollar spent on promoting junk food to our children only about 1/10 of a penny is spent promoting healthy food. Schools are one place where the opposite should be true. At least.

References and Resources

CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Children’s Food Environment State Indicator Report, 2011.

IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2005. Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. “Fast Food FACTS: Evaluating Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing to Youth.” November, 2010