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Media Exposure & Spending Power Make Latino Children Top Target In Junk Food Ads

Health experts say food and beverage marketers are aiming their advertising at Latino children, and too much of that advertising is trying to get kids to buy junk food.

Advertisers are doing little to dispute the fact that they are marketing to Latino kids. They justify the strategy with numbers that show the market segment is growing in population size, media exposure and spending power.

But a study by Salud America! outlines the effects of food marketing on American Latino children as well as policy implications that should follow.

Salud America!, an organization that seeks environmental and policy solutions to Latino obesity, said the food and beverage industry does too little to self regulate and policy regulations don’t do enough either.

Salud has produced a set of guidelines calling for local public hearings and for communities to step in to campaign for changes in:

  • Menu labeling
  • Prohibiting food sales by non-food retailers
  • Prohibiting the sale and advertising of unhealthy foods on campus
  • Creating vending contracts that limit the sale and marketing of unhealthy food and drinks in parks or other active spaces

The new report reviews the latest science that shows Spanish-language television and outdoor billboards disproportionately expose Latino kids to unhealthy food messages.
Salud America! said Latino kids have higher overall levels of media exposure in a typical day (13 hours) than do their white counterparts (8.36 hours).

*See the full infographic of the image at the top of this page at: www.saludtoday.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Healthier-Marketing-Infographic-medium.jpg

Eileen Pace is a veteran radio and print journalist with a long history of investigative and feature reporting in San Antonio and Houston, earning more than 50 awards for investigative reporting, documentaries, long-form series, features, sports stories, outstanding anchoring and best use of sound.