New Adelaide research: Children watching TV for 80 minutes a day see 800 junk food ads per year April 17, 2018

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.