Fast and Sweet: Nutritional Attributes of Television Food Advertisements With and Without Black Characters

This study describes a content analysis of food advertisements featured in television programming popular with children. Advertisements featuring no Black primary characters were compared on the basis of character and food attributes with ads featuring at least one Black primary character. Advertised foods were then analyzed for the compliance of their nutritional content with the federal government's recommended daily values (RDVs) of select nutrients. Analyses revealed notable differences between ads depicting Black characters and ads without Black characters. Compared with ads without Black characters, ads with Black characters were more likely to sell convenience foods, especially fast foods, yet less likely to feature overweight characters. Ads without Black characters, in contrast, were more likely to sell foods high in sugar. Overall there were few differences in the nutritional breakdown of foods advertised in ads with and without Black characters, mainly because both types of ads tended to sell nutritionally unbalanced foods. A 2,000-calorie diet of foods advertised in both types of ads would exceed RDVs of total fat, saturated fat, and sodium, yet fail to provide RDVs of fiber and certain vitamins and minerals.