Food on young children's television in the UK

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the different types of food featured on children's television in the UK and how frequently they appear.

Design/methodology/approach

A content analysis of children's television across four popular UK channels (CBBC, CBeebies, CiTV, Five) was carried out in Autumn 2008. All output including programmes, advertisements, sponsorship, trailers and idents was examined for verbal and visual instances of food and drink. Food and drink mentions were classified according to food categories.

Findings

The results showed a high incidence of food across the different kinds of output and across the four channels. In programmes, food mentions were skewed towards healthy (68.7 per cent v. 31.3 per cent) rather than unhealthy foods. The most frequent categories of food were fruit and vegetables, desserts, and grains.

Research limitations/implications

The findings presented here are based on four channels, and analysis of 84 hours of television content aimed at children. The study represents a qualitative picture based on a limited sample at a specific point in time.

Practical implications

The results demonstrate that Ofcom's latest UK guidelines on television advertising of HFSS foods are being adhered to during children's programmes, and question whether programming and other types of output offer a positive or negative view of food and whether they too require intervention.

Originality/value

The results widen the debate about obesity and television advertising by considering the importance of editorial content and other marketing communications in terms of food portrayal on children's television.

Citation

Oates, C.J. and Newman, N. (2010), "Food on young children's television in the UK", Young Consumers, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 160-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/17473611011074232