The research, led by the University of Adelaide’s Associate Professor Lisa Smithers and funded by the Heart Foundation, showed that children were exposed to twice as much unhealthy food advertising as healthy food advertising. Junk food ads are shown more frequently on TV at times when many children are watching.
A TV monitoring system, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, allowed Prof Smithers’ team to capture a year’s worth of TV and ads from one free-to-air commercial TV network in SA.
The research was published today in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.
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