Fans faced a ‘constant bombardment’ of junk food ads during the World Cup with staggering number revealed

FIFA faces further backlash after it was revealed that fans were subjected to a “constant bombardment” of junk food adverts during the World Cup.

While it has been over two months since the end of the FIFA World Cup, official statistics of football’s showpiece tournament are still filtering through, but perhaps none more staggering than the sheer number of junk food advertisements force-fed to viewers during the six-week event. 

From a record number of games to a history-breaking number of goals, there were plenty of firsts during the competition in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. 

Fans exposed to a staggering number of junk food adverts

However, researchers have revealed the one data metric that has outscaled all others – the 65,722 adverts displaying fast food and drinks to television viewers during the 104 matches.

According to the study, which utilized an AI tool to record ads that appeared on TV, most of which on pitchside advertisement hoardings, these adverts occupied over 16% of ad space during the total time games were played.

These adverts, which showed either logos or products of fast food and drinks brands, were all shown on international feed games during play. As such, every viewer in any given country would have seen them. 

According to the AI model, on average, there was 576 visible ads for either junk food or drink aired per match. 

Perhaps more importantly, the advertisement figures did not include the ads shown during controversial hydrtaion breaks, nor at half time. 

Broken down, Coca-Cola topped the stats with the largest number of adverts (21,893), McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast food restaurant, registered 13,915, Powerade with 12,777, and Lay’s (Walkers in the UK) with 12,087. 

With worldwide obesity rates hitting new highs, the scale of fast food culture has led to concern around junk food companies force-feeding products down the necks of football fans. 

FIFA criticized for pushing fast food amid worldwide obesity

The president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, Greg Fell, told BBC Sport that “”It is definitely a loophole.

“There is acres of evidence demonstrating that governments around the world are legislating very hard at the moment to limit advertising of junk food.

“It requires worldwide collaboration because obesity is a problem everywhere. Advertising is one of the key mechanisms by which harm from obesity happens.

“Obesity is almost the new tobacco – there isn’t much difference with the methods the tobacco industry used before they were excluded from advertising.

“A lot of this is targeted at children, because these companies want to grow their markets, and children are the future market.”

According to the NHS, research from 2024 showed that 15% of children in the UK were obese, and 26% were overweight, while 20% of children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

“We are facing a global crisis of childhood obesity and diet-related disease, yet the world’s biggest sporting event is saturated with marketing for unhealthy food and drinks”, said Dr Elisa Becker, one of the report’s co-authors.

“Sport should be part of the solution to poor health – not one of the world’s most powerful advertising platforms for the products driving it.”