First published May 7, 2019. In press., We analyzed comedy series for food and beverage references, with particular attention to their type of presentation, along with the characteristics of actors associated with the references. Because the generally positive tone of comedy series can exert affective influence over audiences, the result that clearly unhealthy products appeared more often (food: 51.6%; beverage: 40.5%) than clearly healthy ones (food: 11.2%; beverage: 19.6%) could be especially problematic. Moreover, women (56.5%; men: 47.4%) and African American characters (62.7%; Caucasians: 51.5%; Other: 44.7%) were significantly more often associated with unhealthy foods, which could prompt stereotypes of such individuals.
