Junk Food Ads Flooded World Cup Broadcasts, New Study Finds

Football fans watching the 2026 World Cup were hit with a "constant bombardment" of junk food and drink adverts throughout the tournament, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Bristol and University of Oxford.

The team built an AI tool to scan every match for ads that were visible to TV viewers during live play, mostly on pitchside boards and around stadiums across the US, Canada and Mexico. Across all 104 games, they counted 65,722 appearances of logos and products from brands selling food and drink high in fat, salt or sugar, the official UK government definition of junk food.

Those ads stayed on screen for a combined 28.1 hours, working out to just over 16% of all the time the ball was actually in play. That's an average of 576 visible junk food ads per match, and the figures don't even include pre-match coverage, half-time breaks, or the tournament's controversial in-match hydration breaks.

Who Topped The List

Coca-Cola led the way with 21,893 appearances, followed by McDonald's on 13,915, Powerade with 12,777, and crisp brand Lay's (known as Walkers in the UK) with 12,087. All four are official FIFA partners, and Powerade is actually owned by Coca-Cola.

FIFA and Brands Respond

FIFA defended its sponsorship deals, saying most of its revenue goes back into football, including health and wellbeing projects. A spokesperson said: "FIFA works with a broad, global portfolio of partners, all of which are subject to its governance and compliance frameworks," adding that its "Be Active" campaign spread "messages of unity, inclusion, health and friendship" to huge audiences during the tournament.

BBC Sport reached out to Coca-Cola, McDonald's and PepsiCo (which owns Lay's) but none of them replied.

Far More Common Than Gambling or Crypto Ads

The study also looked at other types of ads seen as potentially harmful. Junk food and drink logos showed up about seven times more often than alcohol and prediction market ads, ten times more than gambling ads, and almost 25 times more than cryptocurrency ads.

The researchers warned that this kind of exposure isn't harmless. "Repeatedly connecting unhealthy food and drink brands with football, excitement and national identity can make these brands familiar and normalise their consumption," they wrote.

A Loophole in UK Advertising Rules

Since October 2025, the UK has banned TV ads for junk food like burgers, chips, crisps and sugary drinks before 9pm. But because these ads appear on pitchside boards at an international event, they don't fall under that law, meaning UK viewers still end up seeing them during hours they're technically banned.

Greg Fell, president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, called it "definitely a loophole." He said: "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."

He went further, comparing the industry's tactics to those once used by tobacco companies. "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."

Wider Context

The findings come as the UK government rolls out new school dinner rules, banning deep-fried food and pushing more fruit, vegetables, fibre and wholegrains to help tackle childhood obesity. NHS data from 2024 showed 15% of children in the UK were obese and another 26% were overweight.

Dr Elisa Becker, one of the study's co-authors, said the timing couldn't be worse. "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," she said. "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."