US children and teenagers are being major targets seeing far more soda advertising than before, as marketers have expanded online, a study released on Monday. The report, from the Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, also found that many fruit drinks and energy drinks, popular with teenagers, have as much added sugar and calories as full-calorie soda. Children's and teens' exposure to full-calorie soda ads on television doubled from 2008 to 2010, the report found, fueled by increases from Coca-Cola Co and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. Brownell, co-author of the report. “The companies are marketing them in highly aggressive ways.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 15 percent of children are overweight or obese. Children today are likely to have shorter life spans than their parents, which will affect their ability to work and pay taxes, while threatening to drive up healthcare costs. But Monday's report is the first, he said, that analyzed data from several firms including Nielsen to measure the full picture of youth exposure to marketing and advertising. The report found, for example, that 21 sugary drink brands had YouTube channels in 2010 with more than 229 million views by June 2011. Coca-Cola, it found, was the most popular brand on Facebook, with more than 30 million fans. The most-visited websites operated by soft drink brands were MyCokeRewards.com and Capri Sun, which is owned by Kraft Foods Inc. Other findings in the report include analysis of drinks themselves. For example, it said an 8-ounce (225-gram) serving of a full-calorie fruit drink has 110 calories and seven teaspoons of sugar -- the same amount found in an 8-ounce serving of a soda or energy drink.
