Children and Adolescents’ Exposure to Digital Food and Beverage Marketing in Mexico During COVID-19 Times

Abstract

Objectives Characterize children's and adolescent's exposure of Digital Marketing (DM) and identify DM strategies of advertised food and beverages Methods This was a cross-sectional study. We used a crowdsourcing strategy to recruit children and adolescents around Mexico. Those with home access to Wi-Fi, with mobile capacity to record their habitual internet usage, and with abilities to upload their videos of exposure in a cloud were included. Once the videos were received, we performed a content analysis using the protocol for Monitoring of Marketing of Unhealthy Products to Children and Adolescents of the World Health Organization (Europe Office). The protocol and template were adapted to the Mexican context and then piloted in a sample of 20 children. We included an item to explore if COVID was used as a marketing strategy. Data was captured in an excel spreadsheet and then transferred to Stata 14. Results We received 45 minutes of internet exposure recordings from 348 children and adolescents. Overall, 45% of children and adolescents were exposed to food and beverage DM. Most of the DM was made of unhealthy food categories: fast food 17%, sweet snacks 10%, cakes and pastries 7%, among others. From the food and beverage advertising (f&b ads) 38% had at least one element to attract children, and 43% attracted adolescents. Brand characters were displayed on 10% of the ads; while licensed characters were displayed on 3.6%. We found that COVID19 was mentioned or illustrated in 3% of the f&b ads and that 67% f&b ads included an incentive to purchase or consume; such as: a person eating the product, or a f&b product served on a plate ready to eat. Conclusions A restriction of unhealthy food and beverage digital marketing aimed at children and adolescents should be considered in the current Mexican advertising regulation. Funding Sources This project was funded by UNICEF México and Bloomberg Philanthropies. The presenting author was funded by CONACYT México and was awarded with the Healthy Food Policy Fellowship.

Adolescents’ media usage and self-reported exposure to advertising across six countries: implications for less healthy food and beverage marketing

“…17 18 Globally, time spent online on social media, gaming, streaming and browsing the web is significant and appears to be increasing in some countries, 19 20 representing an important channel for advertising energy dense and nutrient-poor products. [21][22][23][24][25] Given the shifting media consumption habits of children and adolescents, exploration of media consumption and associations with exposure to marketing of less healthy food products and their patterning by demographic and socioeconomic factors is warranted. Most studies to date that examine media consumption habits among children and adolescents have been limited to a single media type and do not examine exposure across multiple countries.…”

Perspective: Mexico’s Experience in Building a Toolkit for Obesity and Noncommunicable Diseases Prevention

“…Other policies that are pending include regulations of marketing strategies directed to children in points of purchase [ 31 ] and digital spaces [ 39 , 62 ], the adoption and enforcement of the recommendations from the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk substitutes from the World Health Organization, strengthening implementation of school food standards, and subsidies to healthier foods. Furthermore, a more explicit life-course perspective has been missing and some age groups have received less attention.…”

Data on the Facebook marketing strategies used by fast-food chains in four Latin American countries during the COVID-19 lockdowns

“…The pandemic context led governments to implement lockdowns that influenced changes in the Body Mass Index (BMI), dietary patterns, and physical activity of children and adolescents [ 1 – 6 ], as well as demanded new marketing strategies by the food industry [ 7 – 11 ]. Moreover, it may have contributed to the growing exposure of young consumers to online, food-related advertising [ 12 ].…”