When New Yorkers visit Korean Community Services (KCS), they often seek education for lifestyle changes, nutrition counseling, and support for preventing and managing chronic conditions. Many are seniors or people who are food-insecure in need of nutritionally balanced meals and other wellness services to maintain their health.
Beyond limited access to fresh, nutritious food, they’re also up against a powerful threat: predatory food marketing backed by mega-corporations. With misleading food and beverage ads dominating every digital space, lots of our clients simply buy whichever products they see most. Too often, they are stunned to learn that many of the foods they’ve long consumed are harmful to their health. High-calorie items like white rice, soju, and prepackaged instant noodles, which are equally heavy in sodium, top the list of products to which our community’s overexposed.
This misinformation isn’t their fault — it’s the result of deliberate industry marketing tactics. Food and beverage companies spend billions on ads promoting sugary drinks, salty snacks, and nutrient-poor meals. They aggressively target communities of color with predatory marketing, pushing unhealthy products onto unsuspecting consumers. Research shows that these ads play a major role in widening racial health disparities, disproportionately reaching those with the least access to affordable, nutritious food.
That’s why New York must take action to curb these deceptive practices by passing the Predatory Marketing Prevention Act (PMPA).
Sponsored by State Senator Myrie and Assembly Member Reyes, the PMPA would allow the New York State Attorney General to investigate and limit predatory food marketing aimed at children, seniors, and residents with disabilities.
Given the alarming rise in chronic diet-related illnesses statewide, New York needs to act fast and pass this bill. Approximately 13% of Asian New Yorkers have been diagnosed with diabetes and 24% with hypertension. In neighborhoods like Flushing—where KCS is based and 55% of residents are Asian—the impact of such marketing is evident. In our community, up to 16% percent of adults consume at least one sugary drink a day.
Seniors, in particular, are a growing target of these aggressive marketing tactics. Many rely on fixed incomes and are drawn to inexpensive, heavily advertised processed foods that claim to offer convenience but instead contribute to worsening health conditions. According to a 2022 study, older adults who regularly consume ultra-processed foods have a 24% higher risk of cognitive decline. For seniors and clients like ours, managing diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease, predatory marketing is especially life-threatening.
KCS is working with other health providers and advocacy organizations to help close these racial health gaps, but we need strong public health legislation to bolster our efforts. The PMPA offers just that. Our state must seize this opportunity to safeguard New Yorkers from harmful food marketing and advance public health.
We’re almost there.
The New York State Senate just included the PMPA in its 2025 one-house budget resolution, and the bill received a vote of confidence from the Senate Committee on Consumer Protection. But there’s more work ahead to officially enact the PMPA.
We urge the full legislature to act now and pass the PMPA during this legislative session. The health of our community members depends on it.
*Myoungmi Kim is the CEO and Sara Kim is the Program Director of Public Health and Research Center at KCS. The Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York (KCS) assists Korean-Americans and other immigrant communities in the greater New York City area with economic empowerment, social well-being, and health and wellness. Myoungmi Kim leads the organization as CEO and Sara Kim is the Program Director of Public Health and Research Center.
