Corporate sponsorship of physical activity promotion programmes: part of the solution or part of the problem?

Abstract

The sponsorship of a physical activity promotion campaign can allow a corporation to target its marketing at children and gain access to health-related policy development networks. This study reinforces the need for independent evaluation of all potential impacts of such a partnership and calls on those responsible for community health to fully consider the ethical implications of such relationships.

The physical activity and nutrition-related corporate social responsibility initiatives of food and beverage companies in Canada and implications for public health

“…By focusing on sports, food companies are shifting the emphasis of healthy living towards physical activity rather than diet. This tactic is common among food and beverage companies as it deflects attention away from their own role in the growing rates of obesity and nutrition-related NCDs and shifts blame onto individuals and their sedentary lifestyle [18,38,39]. Consistent with other research [40,41], we also identified one industry association (Dairy Farmers of Canada) that has developed nutrition education materials for use by teachers, from kindergarten to high school [42].…”

“…This national campaign promoted the use and understanding of nutrition labels from 2010 to 2015 and was part of a broader partnership between Food and Consumer Products of Canada, an industry interest group, and Health Canada, the government department responsible for "helping Canadians maintain and improve their health" [54,55]. This campaign exemplifies the food industry's tendency to frame obesity as a matter of personal responsibility [18,38,39]. Governmental and health organizations should reconsider partnerships of this kind as these may undermine their public image.…”

“…Overall, there is much debate regarding the role the food industry should play in the prevention of obesity and NCDs and the appropriateness of cross-sector engagement in this area [56,57]. Many oppose partnerships between food industry and health organizations because of inherent conflicts of interests [39,58,59]. In addition to potentially compromising the credibility of health organizations, partnering with food companies, particularly those that largely produce and promote unhealthy food products, could confer an aura of healthfulness, goodwill and credibility to these industry partners while eclipsing the fact that many of the same companies or their industry associations persistently and aggressively push-back against government policies and the efforts of public health advocates aimed at improving diet and health [60][61][62].…”

Adolescent perspectives of the recreational ice hockey food environment and influences on eating behaviour revealed through photovoice

“…Marketing influences described by the players clearly support the call for policy restricting food and beverage marketing to children and adolescents across diverse settings (60,61) . The current research also demonstrates the potential influence on adolescents' eating behaviour of targeted sport-specific marketing, whether child/adolescent directed or not, and sponsorship for highly popular sports, like hockey in Canada (62)(63)(64)(65) . Player response to sport-specific marketing also supports policy restricting any food marketing exposure in settings where children and adolescents spend time, like recreation facilities.…”

Theorizing physical activity health promotion: towards an Eliasian framework for the analysis of health and medicine

“…In contrast to the largely pharmaceutical alternatives exercise is an active rather than reactive approach to health management (Porter 1999), predicated on a sense of agency contra to the structure of corporate exploitation. While corporate sponsorship of PAHP may serve to subvert this somewhat (for critiques of the involvement of businesses such as Nike and Coca Cola see Jane and Gibson, 2017), public scepticism of these associations is not (yet) widespread.…”