--- description: Toy giveaways in fast food ads grab children's attention, study finds title: Kids' TV Ads for Fast Food Work Just As They're Supposed To image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Fast Food](/tag/fast-food/) ## Fast Food Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Kids' TV Ads for Fast Food Work Just as They're Supposed To  by [Jack Dickey](/author/jack-dickey/)  ## Jack Dickey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 1, 2015 3:03 PM CUT  by [Jack Dickey](/author/jack-dickey/)  ## Jack Dickey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 1, 2015 3:03 PM CUT Seemingly confirming the familiar warnings of pediatricians and other researchers, [a new study in the _Journal of Pediatrics_](http://www.jpeds.com/content/JPEDSEmond "undefined") finds that fast food commercials featuring toy giveaways led children to ask their parents to take them to the restaurants. And the more the children saw the fast-food commercials, the more frequently they ate fast food. The study, performed by researchers from Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, focused on the advertising of Burger King and McDonald’s, the two major fast-food brands on ad-supported children’s networks, such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. But the study concerned national advertising from 2009, and the youth-focused marketing practices of fast food have since then improved, by some measures. A [2013 report](http://fastfoodmarketing.org/media/FastFoodFACTS%5FReport.pdf "undefined") suggested that both McDonald’s and Burger King had scaled back their marketing toward children. Some practices still raise hackles, however. [Earlier this year](http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/05/14/childrens-advertising-watchdog-criticizes-mcdonalds-ad/ "undefined"), the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, the regulatory body, reprimanded McDonald’s for a Happy Meal commercial in which a “Teenie Beanie Baby Boo” toy got a third of the screen time. McDonald’s has stopped airing the ad. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4095517/fast-food-advertising-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4095517/fast-food-advertising-kids/"},"headline":"Kids' TV Ads for Fast Food Work Just as They're Supposed To","datePublished":"2015-11-01T15:03:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:14:57.124Z","description":"Toy giveaways in fast food ads grab children's attention, study finds","url":"https://time.com/4095517/fast-food-advertising-kids/","keywords":["Fast Food","Research","childhood obesity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Dickey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-dickey/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/fast-food/","name":"Fast Food"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4095517/fast-food-advertising-kids/","name":"Kids' TV Ads for Fast Food Work Just as They're Supposed To"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: High Rates of Fast Food Consumption","description":"U.S. kids get 12.4 percent of their calorie intake from fast food restaurants, a new CDC study revealed","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/CEIFuLOb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-16T13:41:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CEIFuLOb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4095517/fast-food-advertising-kids/","duration":"PT1M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4095517/fast-food-advertising-kids/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```