Food companies spend $14 billion a year on ads, and 80 percent of it sells fast food, sugary drinks and candy

Food, drink and restaurant companies spend about $14 billion a year on advertising in the United States, according to the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, which built the total from a 2017 analysis of Nielsen advertising data. That works out to about $38 million a day.

The Rudd Center figure runs larger than most food advertising numbers because it counts more companies. Statista's food advertising figures cover food manufacturing, the companies that make packaged food. The Rudd Center counts drink companies and restaurant chains on top of that.

About 80 percent of the total goes to four categories: fast food, sugary drinks, candy and snacks. That is roughly $11 billion a year. Everything else, including fruit, vegetables, milk, eggs, bread, meat and fish, shares the remaining $3 billion or so.

The Rudd Center has broken out some of those categories in its FACTS reports. Fast food restaurants spent $5 billion on advertising in 2019, up more than $400 million since 2012, according to its Fast Food FACTS 2021 report, which found that children and teens saw an average of more than two fast food TV ads a day. Its Sugary Drinks FACTS 2020 report found that beverage companies spent $1.04 billion advertising sugary drinks and energy drinks in 2018, including $586 million for regular soda. Diet and unsweetened drinks, water and juice included, got $573 million combined.

The same Rudd Center research found that food companies aim their least healthy products at teenagers, and that they reach young people with ads on social media, branded games and ordering apps, and paid promotions from influencers.

On the prevention side, the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion received about $1.4 billion in the fiscal year 2024 budget. That figure covers the one center, not the whole CDC. Set against the Rudd Center total, which covers a different year, it comes to roughly one dollar of chronic disease prevention funding for every ten dollars of food, drink and restaurant advertising.

In the United Kingdom, a law that took effect on January 5, 2026, banned TV ads for less healthy food and drink before 9pm and banned paid online ads for those products at all hours, according to IAB UK. Ads for a brand are still allowed as long as they do not show a specific product that falls under the rules. The UK government has said it expects the ban to reduce the number of children living with obesity by 20,000, Food Manufacture reported.