Are Your Food Ads Racist?

Shutterstock/Ollyy

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Junk food companies are spending a disproportionately high percentage of their marketing budgets on ads for black-targeted television channels, according to a new study from the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Spanish-language television is also a draw for junk food companies, although to a lesser degree overall.

The study defines black-targeted TV channels as those with a “high proportion of black individuals in the audience and/or whose ads were viewed disproportionately more by black teens relative to white teens.” The contrast is stunning: Black children see at least twice as many ads for sweets and sodas compared with white children.

Check out the results in the infographics below, and to see the full results of the study, click here.

infographic

University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity
infographic

University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity

 

The truth needs defenders. Be one.

Tomorrow is the last day of our Spring Membership Drive, and we need to raise 1,000 new donations to fund the critical investigations our team is hard at work on. As of today, we’re still less than halfway there—and we can’t afford to fail!

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by donors from every state in the union—blue, red, and purple, all part of a community of readers who care about the future of our democracy.

We’re independent from corporations and uninfluenced by those in power. Our commitment is solely to the truth. That’s only possible because of readers like you, who believe in the importance of independent, fearless journalism.

Be the reason these stories get told. Make a donation today.

The truth needs defenders. Be one.

Tomorrow is the last day of our Spring Membership Drive, and we need to raise 1,000 new donations to fund the critical investigations our team is hard at work on. As of today, we’re still less than halfway there—and we can’t afford to fail!

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by donors from every state in the union—blue, red, and purple, all part of a community of readers who care about the future of our democracy.

We’re independent from corporations and uninfluenced by those in power. Our commitment is solely to the truth. That’s only possible because of readers like you, who believe in the importance of independent, fearless journalism.

Be the reason these stories get told. Make a donation today.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate