Health. How do junk food ads impact children?

A study presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain, and conducted by the University of Liverpool, shows that 7- to 15-year-olds are particularly vulnerable to food marketing, whatever its form.

To reach this conclusion, the researchers exposed 240 volunteers from schools in Merseyside, UK, to food and non-food advertisements.

And according to the authors, a simple daily exposure to 5 minutes of advertisements for foods rich in saturated fat, sugar or salt would be enough to push young people to consume an additional 130 kcal per day.

One of the most striking aspects is that regardless of the advertising medium – television, social media, podcasts or posters – the effect remains the same.

Even more surprisingly, advertisements showing only a brand logo (without presenting the product) are just as effective in increasing consumption.

While the causes of obesity are complex and influenced by many factors, it was already known that audiovisual media greatly influenced children's immediate consumption.

This work shows that a simple logo or audio advertisements can also influence the evolution of eating habits.

This research comes at an opportune time as many countries are considering restricting advertising for unhealthy foods to combat growing childhood obesity.

One example is England, which, starting October 1, 2025, will ban the promotion of junk food on the Internet and television during the day (until 9 p.m.).