DIGITAL FOOD MARKETING –
READINGS
WEEK 2 - APPETITE – CAIRNS ET AL. (2012)
ABSTRACT
Food promotions have a direct effect on children’s nutrition knowledge, preferences,
purchase behavior, consumption patterns and diet-related health. Current marketing
practice predominantly promotes low nutrition foods and beverages. Current marketing
practice predominantly promotes low nutrition foods and beverages. Rebalancing the
food marketing landscape is a recurring policy aim of interventions aimed at constraining
food and beverage promotions to children.
A global framework for co-ordinated intervention to constrain unhealthy food marketing
which has received high level support provides valuable insight on some aspects of
immediate implementation research priorities.
INTRODUCTION
- low-nutrition foods is a modifiable risk factor for non-communicable disease and is
linked to the obesity crisis
- WHO implemented ‘set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-
alcoholic beverages to children.
o Set of marketing recommendations was adopted at the UN, thus there is
high-level political commitments.
This commitments presents both challenges and opportunities for
researched.
- Purposes of the paper:
o Providing a summary of public health evidence base that has informed
policy development to date
o Highlighting evidence gaps pertinent to next steps in developing effective
marketing control policies.
OBJECTIVES
The main purpose of the recommendations (on food marketing to children) is to ‘guide
efforts by Member States in designing new and/or strengthening existing policies on food
marketing communications to children in order to reduce the impact on children of
marketing of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, or salt.
- Nature & effects
METHOD
Systematic review.
Types of research questions:
- Nature and extent of food promotion to children
- Effects of food promotion to children
,Research questions:
A. Nature and Extent of Food Promotion to Children:
(1) What promotional channels are used to market foods to children?
(2) What foods are promoted?
(3) What creative strategies are used
(4) What marketing strategies are being used to promote foods in low- and middle-
income countries?
B. Effects of Food Promotion to Children:
(5) How do children respond to food promotion?
(6) Is there a causal link between food promotion and children’s food related
knowledge, preferences, purchase and consumption behaviors, and diet-related
health status?
(7) What is the extent of any influence of food promotion relative to other factors?
(8) In any studies demonstrating an effect, does this affect total category sales,
brand switching or both?
RESULTS
THE OVERALL RESULTS OF SEARCH AND SCREENING
- 99 primary studies & review articles
- Small shift from tv to online marketing
- No significant difference in results between 2006 & 2009
THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF FOOD PROMOTION TO CHILDREN
Promotional Channels used by food marketers (Q1)
- Tv is most popular, but internet-mediated marketing is gaining ground.
What food items are promoted to children (Q2)
- Pre-sugared breakfast cereals, soft drinks, savoury snacks, confectionery and fast
foods.
o 60% - 90%
o Food promotion to children is proportionately greater than that directed to
adult audiences.
Chestnutt and Ashraf (2002) found 63% of advertising during
children’s programming was for food but only 18% during prime-
time programming.
Creative strategies used by food marketers (Q3)
- Entertainment techniques such as animated and other fictional characters appear
more often in food than in non-food advertisements aimed at children
o Taste, humour, action-adventure, fantasy and fun
- No health or nutritional information (2% used nutrition of health appeals)
- Purchase incentives are increasingly common (give-aways, brand-based discounts)
as well as deployment of innovative digital technology are increasingly common.
,What marketing strategies are used in low- and middle-income countries? (Q4)
- Mirrors the high-income countries
- TV advertising, sport and celebrity endorsement, interactive digital technologies
and brand loyalty
- Targeting children as independent consumers
EFFECTS OF FOOD PROMOTION TO CHILDREN
How do children respond to food promotion? (5)
- TV Advertisements, free gifts and packaging routinely attracts children’s attention
o Stimulate acceptance, liking of, and demand for products.
- They also buy food without parental oversight.
Is there a causal link between food promotion and children’s food knowledge,
preferences, purchasing and consumption behaviours and diet-related health?
Nutrition knowledge:
- Exposure to promotions of low nutrition foods and ‘diet’ foods, correlated with
poor nutrition knowledge.
Food preferences
- Not all studies had the same, convincing results. Overall, the weight of evidence
was assessed as modest and on balance indicates that food promotion can
influence food preference.
Food purchase and purchase-related behavior
- There was evidence that the nutritional quality of promoted foods correlated with
the nutritional quality of product purchases and purchase requests.
o Food promotion can directly influence purchasing choice and requests.
Consumption behaviours:
- 14/18 studies found a positive relationship between food promotion and
consumption behaviours such as increased snacking, higher energy intake and
less healthful food choices.
- 6 studies reported significant effects of marketing exposure
o Increased frequency of selecting less healthful foods in preference to
healthier options
o Increased consumption of calories
o Total increased food intake
Diet-related health status:
- Food promotion can influence diet-related health status
o Advertising and snacking frequency and lower nutritional diet quality
o TV viewing and obesity & cholesterol levels.
The influence of food promotion relative to other factors (Q7)
- Food promotion can act as a significant independent determinant of children’s
food behaviors and health status.
, Food promotion effects on brand and category choice (Q8)
- Branded packaging influenced food preferences of pre-school children for both
products sold under the brand name.
o Carrots with McDonalds logo
- Food promotion does influence food choices at category and brand level
DISCUSSION
The reviews indicate marketing practice has haltered little and is, to date, remarkably
resistant to the change of objective of recently introduced marketing control policies.
Food marketing to children continues to primarily promote high fat, salt and sugar foods.
Marketing strategies continue to employ multi-faceted and integrated techniques which
are highly engaging and at tractive to children.
Promotions continue to target children as consumers in their own right, and as
intermediaries who can influence other consumers especially their parents and peers. The
marketing strategies and techniques used in developed economies are similarly deployed
in lower income countries. There is little commercial promotion of foods and beverage as
core to a healthful diet.
The relationship between research and policy is likely to be most effective if policy
informs evidence as well as evidence informing policy. The goal for future policy research
must be to identify how the necessary changes in food promotion can be achieved.
CONCLUSIONS
The WHO set of marketing recommendations can inform future research scope and
purpose.
WEEK 2 - FOOD MARKETING EXPENDITURES AIMED AT YOUTH – POWELL
ET AL.
ABSTRACT
The current article highlights features of the FTC’s analysis, examines how expenditures
relate to yoth exposure to food marketing and assesses changes in the nutritional content
of marketed products.
- Children and teens still see 12-16 TV advertisements a day for products generally
high in saturated fat, sugar or sodium.
- Newer digital forms of healthy food and beverage marketing to youths are
increasing.
The self-regulatory children’s food and beverage advertising initiative is limited in scope
and effectiveness:
- Expenditures increased for many noncovered marketing techniques (product
placement, movie/video, cross-promotion, athletic sponsorship, celebrity fees etc.)
- Industry pledges do not protect children aged 11 and above
- Some marketing appears to have shifted to older children.
o Nutritional content remains poor
o Continued monitoring of and improvements to food marketing to youth are
needed.
