For all the colour and noise of a World Cup, the message running around the pitch-side boards was often less about football than what viewers were being encouraged to buy. A study by researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Bristol has found that international broadcasts of 104 tournament matches contained almost 66,000 appearances by junk-food brands.
The research, published on Tuesday, used an artificial-intelligence system to examine advertising visible around stadiums and beside the playing surface. It focused on the international broadcast feed and did not include commercials shown before kick-off, at half-time or during cooling breaks.
Brands including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Powerade and Lays accounted for the largest share of the exposure. Junk-food and soft-drink advertising represented 70% of all brand appearances identified in the study.
Across the matches analysed, those promotions were on screen for a combined 28.1 hours, equivalent to 16% of playing time. The findings apply to the international feed watched in markets around the world, rather than country-specific advertising inserts.
Gambling, alcohol and prediction markets also prominent
The study also recorded substantial visibility for other industries associated with health or social harms. Alcohol branding appeared for 8.2 hours, while prediction-market advertising was visible for 8.8 hours, making it the second most prominent advertising category behind junk food.
Sports-betting promotions featured for 4.2 hours, or 2.4% of total match time.
Elisa Becker, one of the report’s co-authors, said the contrast was troubling amid a worldwide rise in childhood obesity and diet-related illnesses.
“Sport ought to be part of the answer to poor health, rather than one of the world’s most effective advertising platforms for the products that help drive it,” Becker said.
Co-author Dr Raffaello Rossi said the results showed how a tournament celebrated for bringing people together could simultaneously promote products linked to major causes of avoidable illness and harm.
