The Market of Symbolic Goods *

Marketers have identified urban, low-income African-American and Latino youth as “superconsumers” of soda, candy, and snack products. Many young people report frequent snacking, unstructured meals, and eating “junk food,” such as candy, chips, and soda, for their primary meal. Recent research studying the amount and type of advertising on prime-time television programs oriented to African-American audiences compared to those for general audiences found that far more food commercials appear on shows with large...