Food marketing in schools

According to a comprehensive review by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine, food advertising affects children’s food choices, food purchase requests, diets, and health.¹ Studies also show that labeling and signage on school campuses affect students’ food selections at school.² This is a problem because many of the foods being marketed in schools are of poor nutritional quality.^3,4   A national survey found that 67% of schools have advertising for foods that are high in fat and/or sugar.⁵

Food and beverage marketing appears in many places throughout schools including posters, vending machines, in-school TV ads, school newspapers, textbook covers, sports equipment, scoreboards, buses, scholarships, incentive programs and more.⁶

Such marketing undermines parents’ best efforts to keep their children healthy by promoting the consumption of sugary, fatty foods while kids and youth are away from home. It also undermines school nutrition education. Fortunately, most people oppose junk food marketing in schools.⁷ Seventy-seven percent of parents surveyed nationwide said that they would prefer marketing be directed toward them, not their children.⁸ And 69% of school officials said they supported increased regulation of junk foods in schools.⁹

Learn more and find out what you can do about food marketing in schools by viewing the resources below. Visit our policy pages and take action section for additional action opportunities.

Learn more

Model state legislation: Limit unhealthy food marketing in schools [MS Word]
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Model Legislation: Statewide Study of Food Marketing in Schools [MS Word]
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Fact Sheet: Marketing of low-nutrition foods and beverages in schools: Reading, writing, and a candy ad?
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Model school wellness policies
National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity

Report: School commercialism: High costs, low revenues [pdf]
Public Citizen. Author Elizabeth Ben-Ishai. Editor Robert Weissman.

Food and beverage marketing on California high school campuses survey [pdf]
Prepared by Samuels & Associates for the Public Health Institute. Authors Lisa Craypo, Sarah Stone Francisco, Maria Boyle, and Sarah Samuels.

Survey of food and beverage marketing in Montgomery County, MD schools [pdf], plus assessment tool [MS Word]
Center for Science in the Public Interest

Take action

Captive kids: Selling obesity at schools (An action guide to stop the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages in school)
California Project LEAN. Toolkit prepared by Peggy Agron, Victoria Berends, Noralee Cole, Cyndi Guerra Walter, Katherine Hawksworth, Jennifer Kam, and Maran Kammer-Perez.

Fighting junk food marketing to kids: A toolkit for advocates [pdf]
Berkeley Media Studies Group

References