"I only watch for the commercials": Messages about weight, eating and race in Super Bowl advertisements

Abstract

Objective: Health experts and communication experts assert that the media influence individuals' health. Yet, incongruously, the public, policy-makers and the media themselves appear reticent to accept that the media could have extensive negative influence on health.

Methods: The current study examined all ads that aired from Super Bowl XLVI through Super Bowl XLIX (N = 241) using a detailed, multistep coding process.

Results: Ads had similar racial/ethnic diversity in the full sample and food/beverage ads. A minority (14.5%) of advertisements contained actors with overweight/obesity, who were more likely to be White and less likely to be Hispanic compared with race/ethnicity in all ads. Humour and tone were similarly present whether or not the ads included actors with overweight/obesity.

Conclusions: Findings are striking given the high prevalence of overweight/obesity in the USA, particularly among Black and Hispanic populations, and the comparatively low representation of actors with overweight/obesity in Super Bowl advertisements. Surprising weight findings may signal a change in how the media portray body-size norms (away from exclusively thin), although representations remain disproportionate from actual body-size distributions in the USA.

Keywords: Super Bowl; advertisements; content analysis; race; weight.

Figure 1. Food and Beverage Advertisements

Figure 2. Racial/Ethnic diversity of persons with overweight/obesity in the US compared with Super Bowl ads