Food advertising in child schedule: analysis of the advertisements broadcast on three television channels

The media, and especially television, perform a great pressure to consume more and more industrial foods, which is contributing to aggravate the epidemic of childhood obesity that exists today in our society. The main objective of this study is determinate what ads with food advertising appear in three channels of TV aimed at children public and, later, analyze their content. The study is focused on three time slots for three different periods of fifteen consecutive days. The content analysis involves four relevant aspects from an educational perspective: 1) type of food, 2) general message of advertisement, 3) scientific content associated and 4) context or educational content linked. The results show 20 brands of food products stated in a total of 36 different advertisements, mainly issued from 17-19h and from 20:30-22h. The use of famous characters stands out in the third part of ads (12 of 36), message with scientific content in 19 of them and explicit references to escolar context in only 3 ads. A lot of these contents don't comply with PAOS Code and they could affect a correct food education.