To evaluate the effects of Chile’s 2016 regulation restricting child-directed marketing of products high in energy, saturated fats, sodium and sugars on reducing children’s exposure to ‘high-in’ television food advertising.

Television use by pre-schoolers and adolescents was assessed via surveys in the months prior to implementation and a year after implementation. Hours and channels of television use were linked with the amount of high-in food advertising observed in corresponding content analyses of food advertisements (ads) from popular broadcast and cable channels to estimate changes in exposure to food ads from these channels.

Middle-lower and lower-income neighbourhoods in Santiago, Chile.

Pre-schoolers (n 879; mothers reporting) and adolescents (n 753; self-reporting).

Pre-schoolers’ and adolescents’ exposure to high-in food advertising in total decreased significantly by an average of 44 and 58 %, respectively. Exposure to high-in food advertising with child-directed appeals, such as cartoon characters, decreased by 35 and 52 % for pre-schoolers and adolescents, respectively. Decreases were more pronounced for children who viewed more television. Products high in sugars were the most prevalent among the high-in ads seen by children after implementation.

Following Chile’s 2016 child-directed marketing regulation, children’s exposure to high-in food advertising on popular broadcast and cable television decreased significantly but was not eliminated from their viewing. Later stages of the regulation are expected to eliminate the majority of children’s exposure to high-in food advertising from television.

Front-of-package (FOP) marketing strategies of a wide variety of beverages were catalogued to examine the prevalence of each strategy prior to a sweeping Chilean restriction of child-directed marketing aimed at reducing obesity-related disease among Chile’s youth.

Photographs of 1005 beverage packages were quantitatively content-analysed to code whether a variety of child-directed, health-oriented and other marketing strategies (e.g. sales promotions) were present on each product’s FOP. Strategies were then analysed based on beverages’ product category, total sugar, energy and tax status (beverages with added sugars are taxed at different rates).

Photographs were taken in six urban supermarkets in Santiago, Chile, representing five different supermarket chains.

Beverages using child-directed characters or nature/fruit references were higher in total sugar and beverages with child-directed characters or childhood/family references were higher in energy than beverages without these respective strategies. Of the beverages taxed at the highest rate (greatest amount of added sugars), 49 % used nutrition and health appeals and 80 % used nature or fruit appeals. Plain waters and plain milks were less likely than other selected product categories to use health-oriented appeals or multiple FOP strategies in combination.

FOP marketing on beverages varied according to the nutritional quality of the product, with heavier use of health-oriented and child-directed strategies in less healthy products. Marketing activities warrant continued observation to evaluate how industry responds to new marketing restrictions as these restrictions are evaluated in the light of existing taxes and other regulatory efforts to improve diets and reduce obesity-related disease.