The Chain Gang

A New Study Explains Exactly How Fast-Food Chains Target Black Children

But what about parfaits? Everybody likes parfaits.
But what about parfaits? Everybody likes parfaits. Photo: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Corbis

By studying some 6,700 restaurants nationwide, researchers at Arizona State and the University of Illinois at Chicago recently found that fast-food chains in predominantly black neighborhoods have “significantly higher odds of using kids’ meal toy displays” — about 60 percent higher, to be exact — than one in a white neighborhood, where, says the study, green salads are more prominently advertised. The same is true in lower-income areas, the study adds, where chains gear more of their ads toward kids than those in high-income neighborhoods. The trend, one author tells the Washington Post, is “troubling because we know that black children are at higher risk for consuming unhealthy diets including fast food, and have higher prevalence of obesity.”

A free toy can get kids to eat more, a fact that researchers have demonstrated. These days, as the big chains are all struggling to attract customers, the drive-through isn’t as out of favor in poorer neighborhoods, where the lack of healthier options has led to a new term, “food oppression.” As a researcher tells the Post, executives at chain restaurants have long argued that they can control portion sizes, but they aren’t the gatekeepers of how much food their customers actually eat. “For that reason,” he says, “regulating marketing in fast food companies is the only way to solve this problem.”

[WaPo]

A New Study Explains Exactly How Fast-Food Chains Target Black Children