Are Kids Seeing More Fast-Food Ads?
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — A study released today from Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity charges that fast-food companies are marketing to youth now more than ever — increasingly targeting children as young as 2 years old — using various media, and rarely offer healthy meal choices, despite the abundance of advertising about them. Rudd Center was expected to announce the findings at a press conference Monday morning. The report’s authors studied marketing efforts of 12 fast-food chains in the U.S. — including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Subway and Yum Brands’ Pizza Hut and KFC. The study said that the fast-food industry spent more than $4.2 billion on marketing and advertising in 2009, according to Nielsen Co., focusing extensively on TV, the internet, social-media sites and mobile applications. “Despite pledges to improve their marketing practices, fast-food companies seem to be stepping up their efforts to target kids,” said Jennifer L. Harris, lead researc
