Television is the most prominent media platform in the Philippines, according to the 2008

Nielsen Audience Measurement report. Almost all of the population have access to and watch
TV, by far the biggest source of news and information among Filipinos 97.5 in Luzon Island,
98.2 in the Visayas, and 92.6 in Mindanao (Rimban and Cabaero 2008). In the Visayas alone,
there is an average of eight hours of viewing per household per day. Furthermore, 93% of those
who are exposed to television, according to a UNESCO study, are children. They are also
identified as heavy viewers who spend more than six hours of watching television a day (Flores
2000; Portus 2012).
With the advent of television, came also the onset of TV advertising. 2013 data from
Kantar Media, an information and consultancy company, revealed that TV has garnered 78% of
total advertising expenses from companies and government agencies, having spent a combined
P339.3 billion. But these ads are mostly of food products such as canned goods, snacks loaded
with sugar, or foods that nutritionists convince should be consumed moderately or in very small
servings (Gantz et al. 2007). Even the fast-food favourite Jollibee Foods Corp and Universal
Robina Corp, which manufactures the Jack 'N Jill brand of snack foods and the C2 ready-todrink tea, are included in the top 10 ad spenders of 2013 (Alegado 2014).
Although there exists multiple factors that affect food preferences and eating behaviours,
food advertising is still one dominant force in the society (Story and French 2004). Boyland et al.
(2011) implicated that television viewing has negative effects on childrens diets and has
increased the risk of obesity. It was also purported that it has reduced their consumption on fruits
and vegetables, situation confirmed by the National Statistical Coordination Board.
A growing number of research studies has suggested that food advertisement really does
affect childrens eating behaviour. In a randomized and controlled experiment, Robinson et al.
(2007) have provided evidence that exposure to junk food advertising has an impact on children's
food beliefs and preferences.
One study conducted by Gorn and Goldberg (1982) was a well-designed experiment
which randomly assigned children ages 58 years old attending a summer camp to one of four
conditions to examine the influence of television advertisement of snack food commercials to
childrens snack choices. Daily for two weeks, children watched 30 minutes of a television
cartoon with about 5 minutes of advertising embedded. The four experimental conditions
differed in the type of food advertising included with the cartoon: ads for candy and Kool-Aid;
ads for fruit and fruit juice; control (no ads); and public service ad announcements for healthy
foods. After viewing the assigned program, the children went to another part of the room where
snack choices were made available to them. Children were given a selection of fruits, juices,

candy, or Kool-Aid to choose to eat. Gorn and Goldberg found that the children who saw the
candy advertisement consumed significantly more candy and less fruit than children in the fruit
advertisement condition.