The prevalence and audience reach of food and beverage advertising on Chilean television according to marketing tactics and nutritional quality of products

© The Authors 2018.Objective In the light of Chile's comprehensive new restriction on unhealthy food marketing, we analyse food advertising on Chilean television prior to the first and final phases of implementation of the restriction.Design Content analysis of marketing strategies of 6976 advertisements, based on products' nutritional quality. Statistical analysis of total and child audience reached using television ratings data.Setting Advertising from television aired between 06.00 and 00.00 hours during two random composite weeks across April-May 2016 from the four broadcast and four cable channels with the largest youth audiences.Results Food ads represented 16 % of all advertising; 34 % of food ads featured a product high in energy, saturated fats, sugars and/or salt (HEFSS), as defined by the initial regulation. HEFSS ads were seen by more children and contained more child-directed marketing strategies than ads without HEFSS foods. If HEFSS advertising was restricted only in pr