The marketing of junk food, soft drinks, chocolates, and other industrialized snacks on social media contributes to “normalizing” unhealthy eating, stated a group of Canadian researchers who are calling for policies to protect children and adolescents. Social media is becoming an important space where young people end up being exposed to marketing that promotes nutrient-poor products, they noted.
A study published at the end of October in the journal PLOS Digital Health has focused on the 40 best-selling food brands in Canada. Fast food restaurant chains and sugary drinks were the most common posts on social media where products were mentioned.
The study’s author, Monique Potvin Kent, a professor at the Faculty of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, had previously estimated that Canadian children see more than 4,000 advertisements for food and beverages each year on social media through their digital devices. In the case of teenagers, that figure reaches 9,000 advertisements.
Potvin Kent’s children are now older, but she began researching junk food advertising when her son, then three, asked to go to a specific restaurant of this type of food every day, an example of what researchers call persistent behavior.
Changes in the food environment, which include the availability of junk food, the price of healthy foods, and factors such as advertising, affect the type of foods consumed, added Potvin Kent.
According to the professor from the University of Ottawa, the food environment should make it easier to choose healthy foods, but this is not reflected in advertising messages.
Last year, the World Health Organization recommended mandatory regulation of the marketing of non-alcoholic foods and beverages high in saturated fats, trans fats, salt, and certain sugars.
Charlene Elliott, a professor in the Department of Communication, Media and Film at the University of Calgary, studies how food marketers try to attract teenagers. She did not participate in the Ottawa study.
The study reveals the impressive reach of posts related to food brands on social media in 2020. With the increase in popularity of social networking sites, especially among young people, it can only be assumed that that volume of messages must be even greater today.
In 2022, a systematic review of studies on the effects of marketing unhealthy products through social media or advergaming, which are open and covert advertisements that children are exposed to while playing video games, has a significant effect on children’s persistent behavior, food choices, and food consumption.
Prevalence of junk food ads
The Potvin Kent team described the prevalence of junk food ads as concerning across all ages, as consuming these foods is associated with worse health outcomes, including a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
The latest study analyzed interactions on social media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, and YouTube in 2020. The data from Facebook and Instagram were not available for analysis. Junk food brands were mentioned more than 16 million times by users.
Future research needs to directly link young people’s interactions with posts and food choices, the study’s authors said, acknowledging that they inferred users’ ages.
Professor Charlene Elliott said the latest findings show the need to investigate how children and adolescents are targeted and what is important to them. Although the data was queried with location codes for Canada, it is possible that posts without user tags from outside the country were included.
Potvin Kent and the study’s co-authors urged governments to establish regulations to protect children’s health by limiting their exposure to unhealthy food advertising.
Examples to follow
For example, the province of Quebec prohibits any commercial advertising aimed at children under 13 years old on the internet, radio, television, mobile phones, billboards, promotional items, and printed materials, based on their cognitive ability to recognize the intent of advertisements, said Elliott.
Chile goes further and removes characters from cereal boxes, said Potvin Kent. The United Kingdom is seeking to extend its television advertising restrictions to include digital platforms. What we really need is for the government to intervene and restrict the advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages aimed at children, said Potvin Kent.
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