A dataset of food promotion on television targeted to children in Guatemala and Costa Rica

Childhood overweight and obesity are among the most critical challenges facing public health in the 21st century, being more prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. Promoting healthy foods to children has been shown to influence their purchasing requests and food preferences. The objective of this project was to assess the extent and nature (e.g. persuasive marketing techniques (PMT) and health related claims) of unhealthy food advertisements targeted to children (3-11 years) on the most-watched television channels in Guatemala and Costa Rica. The datasets contain information about 1862 food and beverages ads from Costa Rica and 2841 from Guatemala classified as permitted and non-permitted for marketing to children, according to the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) nutrient profile, and PMT (i.e premium offers, promotional characters, brand benefit claims) and health related claims were also identified. We used the standardized methodology (training, sampling, recording, and ads coding) of the International Network for Food and Obesity Non-Communicable Diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) for monitoring the extent and nature of food advertising on TV. Published files: • Read me file, contains descriptive information of each file, articles published from these datasets and contact information. • Protocol • Data collection form 1 • Costa Rica food promotion dataset ( csv format) • Guatemala food promotion dataset (csv format) • Data dictionar