Adolescent Exposure to Food and Alcohol Advertising on TV in the U.S., 2013-2022

Reducing adolescent consumption of unhealthy foods and alcohol is a primary public health objective. Youth exposure to food and alcohol marketing is associated with increased consumption. This study measured changes in adolescents' exposure to food-related and alcohol TV advertising from 2013 to 2022 and the nutrition quality of advertised food and beverage products.

This repeated cross-sectional study assessed U.S. TV ratings data on advertising exposure among adolescents aged 12-17 years (including separate ratings for Black and White adolescents) from The Nielsen Company for 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2022. For food and beverage product advertisements, nutrient content information was used to identify products high in nutrients to limit.

Adolescents' exposure to food-related advertising declined from 2013 to 2022 by 83.8%, from 5,983 to 969 TV advertisements per year. Exposure to alcohol advertising also fell substantially over this period but to a lesser extent-down by 70.6% with 95 advertisements seen per year in 2022. The percentage of food and beverage advertisements seen for products high in nutrients to limit fell modestly from 77.5% in 2013 to 69.0% in 2022. The proportion of food and beverage products high in sugar fell from 51.6% to 40.6%, whereas the proportion of products high in sodium increased from 19.3% to 25.1%. Similar changes in exposure were observed between White and Black adolescents; thus, the racial gap in marketing exposure persisted.

Adolescents' exposure to TV advertising for food-related products and alcohol fell substantially over the last decade, yet adolescents still see almost 1,100 of such advertisements annually, primarily for unhealthy products. This suggests that current voluntary industry self-regulatory standards are insufficient to fully reduce youth exposure to harmful marketing, which may require broader mandatory policies that limit their total exposure to food-related and alcohol advertising.