Scrutinizing the impact of two self-regulation policies on unhealthy food marketing in children's popular television in Malaysia: a multiple-year repeated evaluation using a harmonized protocol.

BACKGROUND

Regulating unhealthy food marketing is critical as it is a recognized driver of childhood obesity. Two voluntary self-regulatory policies governing food advertising in the media were introduced in Malaysia in 2008 and 2013.

OBJECTIVES

To assess food advertising on Malaysian children's popular television channels across a decade using the standardized INFORMAS protocol.

METHODS

The main dataset was collected cross-sectionally from 2020 to 2022 evaluating three television channels. Additionally, a retrospective comparison between the 2022 and 2012 datasets was limited to two channels commonly available for both years. Advertised foods were classified as permitted (healthy) or not-permitted (unhealthy) using a nutrient profile model of the World Health Organization. We compared advertising rates and use of persuasive marketing techniques during children's peak viewing time (PVT) versus non-PVT.

RESULTS

Unhealthy food advertising rates remained significantly higher than healthy food for all years of measurement (all  < 0.001). For the main dataset years (2020, 2021, 2022), unhealthy food advertising rates were 84%, 65%, and 72% higher during PVT compared to non-PVT (all  < 0.001). For all 3 years, the use of persuasive marketing techniques engaged in unhealthy food advertising during PVT was greater compared to non-PVT (all  < 0.05), whereas this pattern was not observed for the 2012 dataset (all  > 0.05). In 2022, fast foods emerged as the most frequently advertised unhealthy food (1.33 ± 2.23 ads/h/channel), a six-fold increase compared to 2012 (0.21 ± 0.47 ads/h/channel).

CONCLUSIONS

Unhealthy food advertising dominates Malaysian children's popular television channels, especially during PVT despite the presence of voluntary self-regulatory policies. These findings underscore the need for government-led mandatory regulations to control unhealthy food marketing targeting children.