Food marketers spend billions each year to influence children's eating habits, using bright visuals, catchy mascots, and emotional appeals to promote products high in sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats. These tactics reach children in schools, online, through media, and even in grocery store aisles—making it difficult for families to uphold healthy food choices without deliberate effort.
Food and beverage companies pour roughly $11 billion into advertising each year, and a significant share is aimed at children and teenagers. Much of that budget promotes fast food, sugary drinks, candy, and salty snacks—familiar staples of the “junk food” category.
These ads saturate kids' daily lives, making it tough for families to prioritize nutritious choices. They're engineered to grab attention through colorful designs, cheerful characters, and catchy jingles, creating a world where less nutritious foods are constantly front and center.
This environment makes it more challenging for families to promote a healthy lifestyle, especially when marketing messages are so persistent.
Kids see an astonishing number of food and beverage ads each year. According to the Federal Trade Commission and the American Psychological Association, children watch over 4,000 food-related commercials on TV alone every year.
A whopping 86% of those promote foods loaded with added sugar, sodium, or saturated fat.
These advertisements are often made more compelling with:
These elements spark curiosity and joy, but they also give unhealthy food a major advantage in the battle for your child’s attention—and appetite.
Research shows this advertising can influence:
Quick Tip: Talk to kids about ads they see. Help them label what’s a commercial and what’s not.
Young kids don’t just see ads—they soak them in. Children under age eight usually can't tell the difference between entertainment and persuasion. That makes them especially open to marketing aimed directly at them.
When a favorite cartoon character shows up holding a snack, kids often accept that food at face value—fun, safe, and maybe even delicious—without realizing the intent behind the message.
This is where talking to your kids about food and media becomes helpful. Start early, in language they understand. Building awareness now can help influence future habits.
Marketers know kids hold sway over many household purchases—and they’ve turned that influence into a powerful tool. “Pester power” refers to the way ads lead children to persistently request products from their parents.
These strategies actively encourage kids to ask for snacks and meals they’ve seen advertised, which can leave parents stuck between a request and a hard place.
Parent Tip: Create a "Maybe Bin" at home for snack ideas you can revisit together later.
To keep brands top of mind, advertisers use a few clever tools:
These strategies often work—too well. But once you understand how they operate, you can better support your child in making mindful, balanced choices.
Unhealthy food marketing isn’t just hitting kids during Saturday morning cartoons anymore. It’s tailored to find them on YouTube, TikTok, and gaming platforms.
“Unboxing” influencer videos, snack mentions in game streams, and branded dance challenges are everywhere.
Studies suggest this persistent digital marketing plays a role in developing long-lasting food preferences.
Quick Tip: Watch online content together and pause for short chats about what’s real and what’s advertising.
Advertising doesn’t stop at the school gates. Many efforts extend into learning spaces, sometimes disguised as education.
Watch for things like:
Parent Tip: Ask your school about their food sponsorships—you have a voice in what's present in those spaces.
Brightly colored boxes with smiling cartoon faces are placed right at a child’s eye level. These products often contain:
Being aware of these placements helps you avoid impulse buys.
Quick Tip: Involve kids in planning snacks before shopping—they’ll ask less impulsively in-store!
If your child insists their snack “tastes better” because a character is smiling on the box, you’re not alone—and there’s science behind it.
This is emotional branding. Mascots build trust and joy, encouraging repeat requests regardless of the food’s nutrition.
That’s why it’s so important to support a positive relationship with food—one anchored in curiosity, not characters.
These characters are used frequently to market high-sugar and high-fat foods.
Examples include:
Parent Tip: Play a “character spot” game to help kids become more advertising-aware during trips or screen time.
Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. kids and teens live with obesity—which has many causes, including food marketing.
Research indicates ads influence:
These habits, once established, are harder to shift later in life.
Early exposures shape preferences. When highly processed foods come first, fresh foods can seem unfamiliar—even unappealing.
Support long-term change through a balanced food relationship that celebrates natural flavors.
Quick Tip: Offer familiar favorites alongside new foods to help build trust in flavor variety.
Consider ad-free platforms and co-viewing strategies to decrease exposure. Ask simple questions like:
These moments build lifelong awareness.
You're your child's most important food influence. Keep familiar, nourishing options visible and available.
Use the Division of Responsibility to clarify roles:
Parent Tip: Include your child in food prep—it boosts curiosity and pride in trying new things.
Parental choices matter—but big shifts also happen at policy levels. Advocating for restrictions on child-targeted marketing helps everyone.
Support efforts that create a fairer food space—one where your choices aren’t drowned out by billion-dollar budgets.
Written by: Jessica Facussé, Co-founder of Little Lunches, chef trained at the International Culinary Center, Harvard Business School graduate, and one of Bloomberg’s Top 100 Innovators in Latin America.
Sources:
UConn Rudd Center – "Food Marketing"
Federal Trade Commission – "Review of Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents Follow-Up Report"
American Psychological Association – "Food Advertising"
American Academy of Pediatrics – "Children, Adolescents, and Advertising"
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – "Childhood Obesity Data"
JAMA Network – "JAMA Article on Children’s Advertising and Obesity"
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