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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #92: Fast food marketing to American children

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The U.S. child obesity rate is 18.5 percent, which is one of the highest rates in the world. A key contributor to child obesity is fast food, which is supported by increasingly aggressive marketing and advertising. Preschoolers, children, and teens viewed on average 2.1 to 2.3 fast-food TV ads per day in 2019, according to a recent report by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. The advertising is directed at black youth in particular. In 2019, they viewed approximately 75% more fast-food TV ads than their white peers, an increase compared to 60% more ads viewed by black youth in 2012. Among all fast-food advertising, which totaled $4.7 billion in 2019, less than 1 percent was geared toward promoting healthy menu items and almost half of the spending was accounted for by six restaurants: McDonald’s, Domino’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Sonic, and Little Caesars. The report also points out that, “Restaurants’ corporate responsibility initiatives to offer more nutritious options and public support for racial justice, diversity, and inclusion, have not included promises to improve unhealthy marketing practices aimed at communities of color.”