Are Your Food Ads Racist?

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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

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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