U.S. Supermarket Sale Circulars: Which Food Groups Do They Promote Most?

Abstract

Nutrition professionals often advise consumers to use supermarket sale circulars during the menu planning process as a cost-saving practice. However, few studies have examined the healthfulness of foods advertised. Thus, the purpose of this study was to describe the foods advertised by leading supermarkets (50 states andWashington, DC) during September 2011 and compare differences amonggeographic (U.S. Census regions: northeast [n 9],midwest [n 15], south [n 14], andwest [n 13]) and “obesity-rate” regions (i.e., states with CDC adult obesity rates of 25% [n 14], 25 to 30% [n 24], and 30% [n 13]). All food advertisements on the first page of each circular were measured ( 0.12-inch) to determine the proportion of space occupied and categorized according to food group (8 main food groups, each with 4-10 subgroups). Overall, 34%, 20%, 12%, 10%, 6%, 5%, 9%, and 5%of spacewas devoted to the protein, grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy, fats, sweets, and miscellaneous (e.g., condiments) groups, respectively. A comparison ofmean space allocated to each group by geographic region revealed that the northeast tended to devote more advertising space to poultry and jams/jellies subgroups and the west allocated more to fruits. A comparison by obesity region revealed that 25% obesity-rate region allotted significantly more space to the fruit group and yellow-fleshed fruit subgroup than other obesity-rate regions. Candy and sugar-sweetened beverage subgroups occupied significantly more space in the 30% obesity-rate region than the 25 to 30% obesity-rate region. Although data are cross-sectional from a single time-period, results suggest that supermarket ads do not consistently emphasize foods that support healthy weight.