The weighty issue of Australian television food advertising and childhood obesity

Issue addressed The aim of this paper is to provide an accessible overview of research literature on the link between childhood obesity and food advertising on Australian television. Methods A systematic review of current medical, public health, psychological and marketing research literature surrounding the topics of childhood obesity and television food advertising, with emphasis on Australian data. Results Childhood obesity rates have tripled since 1985, mirrored by increases in consumption of energy‐dense foods. Energy‐dense food advertising is ubiquitous in children's television programming, but children's ability to perceive the commercial intent of advertisements only emerges gradually as a function of age. Until such time, children are trusting, and hence vulnerable, to food advertising, influencing their desires and purchase requests to parents. There is robust evidence to suggest that television viewing and childhood obesity are related. However, the direction of causation and specific contribution of food advertising remains equivocal. Moreover, the link between television and childhood obesity is surprisingly weak, with only a small independent effect size (~1%). Conclusions Television food advertising seems to have only a very small, indirect link to childhood obesity. So what? Introducing tighter regulation of food advertising during children's television timeslots would appear to have very little, if any, meaningful effect on childhood obesity rates. Indeed, banning all television would seem to have little impact in this respect. Future health promotion energies aimed at reducing childhood obesity would be better targeted at predictors with greater effect sizes, such as the parents.