In a\u00a0recent study<\/a>\u00a0I co-authored with colleagues at the Rudd Center, we examined advertising and purchasing trends of children\u2019s drinks from 2006 to 2017. We found, not surprisingly, that ad spending drove people to buy the drinks being advertised. The problem is that companies spend tens of millions of dollars per year promoting sweetened children\u2019s drinks. This study was one of the first to\u00a0directly tie that ad spending to household purchases<\/a>\u00a0of unhealthy beverages. In addition, we also found that households with lower incomes were more responsive to this advertising and purchased more sweetened children\u2019s fruit drinks than households with higher incomes.<\/p>\n Decades of research has shown that drinking too many sugary drinks can\u00a0raise the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay<\/a>. Advertising appears to increase companies\u2019 profits, but not children\u2019s health.<\/p>\n Advertising and Demographics<\/strong><\/p>\n The food and beverage industry spends nearly\u00a0US$14 billion per year<\/a>\u00a0advertising their products, and around 80% of the spending promotes highly processed foods. This includes \u201cfruit drinks\u201d \u2013 fruit-flavored beverages with not much juice, like SunnyD \u2013 and flavored waters like Capri Sun Roarin\u2019 Waters. Both are marketed as being for children, but they contain ingredients\u00a0health experts say kids should not consume<\/a>, including\u00a0added sugar, diet sweeteners or both<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2018,\u00a0companies spent $21 million advertising<\/a>\u00a0these sweetened drinks across all media in the U.S. They spent $18.5 million of that promoting sweetened children\u2019s drinks through TV ads. This was far more than the $13.6 million companies spent on TV ads for unsweetened children\u2019s drinks like 100% juices and juice and water blends.<\/p>\n Marketing sugary drinks directly to young kids is another tactic that companies use.<\/p>\n In 2018, children 2 to 5 years old saw\u00a0twice as many TV ads for sugary children\u2019s drinks<\/a>\u00a0than they did for unsweetened juice products. Some fruit drink brands also disproportionately targeted advertising to\u00a0Spanish-speaking households as well as Black children<\/a>. Even packaging is aimed at kids, with sweetened drinks featuring more\u00a0cartoons, brand characters and wacky names<\/a>\u00a0compared to drinks without added sweeteners.<\/p>\n This advertising can undermine parents\u2019 efforts to serve healthy drinks.<\/p>\n To measure the effect of this advertising, my colleagues and I looked at 12 years of monthly purchase data. We found that\u00a0people living in households with lower incomes<\/a>\u00a0purchased significantly more sweetened fruit drinks and fewer unsweetened juices than people in households with higher income. People in non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic households also purchased more sweetened fruit drinks than non-Hispanic white households. This matches research that shows that communities of color and lower-income communities drink relatively\u00a0more sugary drinks than other groups<\/a>, which contributes to disparities in diet-related disease.<\/p>\n Lower Prices<\/strong><\/p>\n Advertising is one thing that drives consumption, but pricing strategies also add to demographic differences in purchases.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve conducted focus groups with parents of young children, and they say they\u2019d like to purchase 100% juice. But when these parents compare prices in the supermarket, they end up buying cheaper sweetened drinks instead of the healthier beverages they intended to buy.<\/p>\n The recent study shows that such price disparities are getting worse. Over the 12 years we covered, prices increased for all children\u2019s drink types, but sweetened children\u2019s fruit drinks increased by an average of just\u00a01 cent per ounce<\/a>, compared to the 4 cents-per-ounce increase of unsweetened juice products.<\/p>\n Misleading Labels<\/strong><\/p>\n Another way companies try to push sweetened drinks is to use labels that make them appear healthier than they really are.<\/p>\n This happens in two main ways. First, sweetened drink labels often\u00a0highlight nutrition-related claims<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 like \u201cVitamin C\u201d or \u201cLess sugar,\u201d for example. Second, these drinks often use\u00a0pictures of fruit or words with no regulatory definitions<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 like \u201cwater\u201d and \u201cnatural.\u201d Taken together, these tactics mask ingredients such as added sugars and diet sweeteners and convey the idea that these drinks are healthy choices, which likely contribute to sales.<\/p>\n Brands also often offer both sweetened and unsweetened drinks with\u00a0nearly identical packaging and claims<\/a>, so it is easy to see why parents\u00a0misperceive what is in these drinks<\/a>. I challenge any reader to head down a children\u2019s drink aisle in the supermarket and successfully separate the healthier drinks from the less healthy ones.<\/p>\n What to Do?<\/strong><\/p>\n Between the marketing, pricing, and labels, it\u2019s no wonder kids are drinking more sugary drinks. Overall, our research found that purchases of sweetened flavored waters increased by 68% from 2006 to 2017. Today, households with young children purchase three times as many ounces of sweetened fruit drinks as unsweetened juice<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reducing the amount of sweetened drinks kids consume when they are young could go a long way in keeping them healthy for a lifetime. Better\u00a0industry self-regulation of advertising<\/a>\u00a0is one way to reduce this overconsumption, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could also get involved by\u00a0mandating clear and consistent disclosures<\/a>\u00a0of added sugars and diet sweeteners, as well as juice percentages, on packaging. Reducing disproportionate targeted marketing of sugary drinks to communities of color would be a step in the right direction, too.<\/p>\n If you care about the health of children, the goal should be to make the healthy choice the easy choice. Unfortunately, our research seems to show a trend in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Prices](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/file-20211115-21-ok6jsj-300x261.png\")