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Research Results Marketing and Promotion
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Food and beverage marketing and advertising aimed at children may have an impact on childhood nutrition and obesity trends. Some food and beverage companies are beginning to take limited steps to change the way their products are marketed to children. Research under this study area examines how marketing influences the food and beverage choices and weight status of children and youth, and how marketing techniques and social marketing can be used to promote healthier eating among youth to reduce obesity.
Title: Peeking Behind the Curtain: Food and Marketing Industry Research Supporting Digital Media Marketing to Children and Adolescents
RWJF Grant ID: 66966
Principal Investigator: Lori Dorfman, DrPH
Organization: Public Health Institute
Results: This report describes and provides examples of the types of digital marketing research utilized by the food and beverage industry and the potential effects it has on the health of children and adolescents. Researchers found that food and beverage industry, together with the companies they contract, are conducting three major types of research: 1) testing and deploying new marketing platforms, 2) creating new research methods to probe consumers’ responses to marketing, and 3) developing new means to assess the impact of new digital research on marketers’ profits. Researchers also found that industry puts this research into action, specifically through its efforts to target communities of color and youth.
Source: Chester J, Cheyne A, Dorfman L. Peeking behind the curtain: Food and marketing industry research supporting digital media marketing to children and adolescents. Center for Digital Democracy and Berkeley Media Studies Group; 2011. Available at: http://digitalads.org/reports.php.
Title: The New Age of Food Marketing: How Companies are Targeting and Luring our Kids – and What Advocates Can Do About It
RWJF Grant ID: 65053
Principal Investigator: Lori Dorfman, DrPH
Organization: Public Health Institute
Results: This report provides a snapshot of five categories of marketing tactics used by fast food, snack food, and soft drink companies to target children and adolescents. These categories include: 1) creating immersive environments; 2) infiltrating social networks; 3) location-based and mobile marketing; 4) collecting personal data; and 5) studying and triggering the subconscious. Descriptions of these categories along with examples from the food and beverage industry are provided. The report concludes with a discussion of what advocates can do to protect children and adolescents from these harmful marketing tactics.
Source: The new age of food marketing: How companies are targeting and luring our kids – and what advocates can do about it. Center for Digital Democracy, Public Health Law & Policy, and Berkeley Media Studies Group, a project of the Public Health Institute; 2011. Available at: http://digitalads.org/reports.php.
Title: Reduction in Purchases of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Among Low-Income, Black Adolescents After Exposure to Caloric Information
RWJF Grant ID: 66955
Principal Investigator: Sara N. Bleich, PhD
Organization: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Results: This paper examines the effect of an intervention to provide caloric information about sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on the number of SSBs purchased by Black adolescents. The intervention randomly assigned urban corner stores in Baltimore City, Maryland to the following calorie information conditions which were posted on the beverage cases: 1) absolute caloric count, 2) percentage of total recommended daily intake, and 3) physical activity equivalent (i.e., minutes of jogging necessary to burn off a bottle of soda or fruit juice). While researchers found that providing Black adolescents with any caloric information significantly reduced the odds of SSB purchases, they found that providing relative caloric information in the form of a physical activity equivalent was associated with the largest reduction in SSB purchases.
Title: Food Marketing to Children Through Toys: Response of Restaurants to the First U.S. Toy Ordinance
RWJF Grant ID: 68301
Principal Investigator: Abby C. King, PhD
Organization: Stanford University School of Medicine
Results: Santa Clara County, California was the first U.S. jurisdiction to implement an ordinance that prohibits the distribution of toys and other incentives to children with meals, foods, or beverages that do not meet minimal nutrition criteria. This paper examines how ordinance-affected restaurants changed their children’s menus, child-directed marketing, and toy distribution practices relative to non-affected restaurants in the first four months after the ordinance went into effect. Researchers found that, although restaurants had only 90 days to comply, the ordinance appears to have encouraged affected restaurants to promote healthier meal items, provide more nutritional guidance on signage, and remove toy signage or discontinue distribution of toys with unhealthy food items. No restaurants introduced healthier items post-ordinance, nor did they reformulate menu items to meet ordinance criteria.
Title: Reining in Pester Power Food and Beverage Marketing
RWJF Grant ID: 66968
Principal Investigator: Mark Gottlieb, JD
Organization: Public Health Advocacy Institute
Results: This legal issue brief focuses on “pester power” food and beverage marketing, in which young children are targeted by marketers in an effort to get them to encourage their parents to purchase products for them. In the brief, pester power marketing is analyzed under existing state consumer protection laws and two primary legal theories: (1) pester power marketing as unfair “indirect” marketing to parents; and (2) pester power marketing as unlawful direct marketing to children.
Source: Wilking C. Reining in pester power food and beverage marketing. Issue Brief, 2011. Available at: www.phaionline.org/consumer.
Title: Major Findings from 50-State Survey of State Consumer Protection Law to Limit Junk Food Marketing to Children
RWJF Grant ID: 66968
Principal Investigator: Mark Gottlieb, JD
Organization: Public Health Advocacy Institute
Results: This report summarizes findings from a 50-state survey of state consumer protection laws to identify key statutes that hold promise to protect children when they are the targets of marketing for unhealthy food and beverage marketing. The authors apply a consumer protection legal framework by dividing children’s food and beverage marketing into three categories: a) marketing that targets parents in an effort to get them to purchase products to serve their children; b) “pester power” marketing that targets children in an effort to get them to persuade their parents into buying products for them; and c) direct marketing to children and adolescents in an effort to get them to use their own money to purchase products for themselves. The report also summarizes key statute provisions relevant to future consumer protection claims alleging unfair, deceptive, or unconscionable food and beverage marketing to children.
Source: Wilking C, Gottlieb M. Major findings from 50-state survey of state consumer protection law to limit junk food marketing to children. 2011. Available at: www.phaionline.org/consumer.
Title: Observations of Marketing on Food Packaging Targeted to Youth in Retail Food Stores
RWJF Grant ID: 66952
Principal Investigator: Diana Grigsby-Toussaint, PhD
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Results: This paper examines the extent to which foods and beverages marketed to youth on the internet and television are available and marketed in retail food stores. Researchers assessed food marketing strategies in convenience/corner and grocery stores and found that 82% of stores assessed carried items marketed to youth on television or the internet. The items most likely to have some type of marketing technique were noncarbonated drinks, fruit and cereal bars and soda. Grocery stores and stores located in black neighborhoods were significantly more likely to market certain types of foods.
Source: Grigsby-Toussaint DS, Moise IK, Geiger SD. Observations of marketing on food packaging targeted to youth in retail food stores. Obesity. 2011. [Epub ahead of print]
Title: Food Marketing in the Digital Age: A Conceptual Framework and Agenda for Research
RWJF Grant ID: 65063
Principal Investigator: Lori Dorfman, DrPH
Organization: Public Health Institute
Results: This report provides a brief summary of how digital marketing works and the role it plays in promoting unhealthy food and beverages to children. Detailed in the report are key concepts of digital marketing; implications for young people’s health; challenges digital marketing concepts raise for researchers; and relevant theoretical models for understanding how the new digital marketing framework acts on children and youth. Crucial gaps in knowledge and an agenda for future research are also highlighted.
Title: Report Card on Food-Marketing Policies: An Analysis of Food and Entertainment Company Policies Regarding Food and Beverage Marketing to Children
RWJF Grant IDs: 65058
Principal Investigator: Margo Wootan, DSc
Organization: Center for Science in the Public Interest
Results: This 34-page report examines whether companies marketing food to children have adopted a policy on marketing to children, and if so, whether those policies are adequate in adhering to nutrition-based standards. Of the 128 companies assessed, only 32% had a policy for marketing food to children. Of the companies who did, none received a grade of “A” for their policy.
Title: First Amendment Implications of Restricting Food and Beverage Marketing in Schools
RWJF Grant ID: 57936
Principal Investigator: Marice Ashe, JD, MPH
Organization: Public Health Institute, Public Health Law Program
Results: How does First Amendment protection affect food and beverage marketing in schools? This study concludes that while the First Amendment keeps a "tight rein" on those who want to restrict advertising to adults, it does "give public school districts significant leeway to curb advertising directed at their student bodies."
Title: Healthy Beverage Vending Agreement
RWJF Grant ID: 57936
Principal Investigator: Marice Ashe, JD, MPH
Organization: Public Health Institute, Public Health Law Program
Results: Are school districts getting the most favorable terms in their vending contracts? A sample vending contract developed as a part of this study illustrates areas where existing contracts may be deficient. The study also examines how vendor contracts should address factors such as labeling, service and delivery requirements prices, scope of the contract, terms of agreement, and promotion and advertising rights.
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