Digital food environment during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Brazil: an analysis of food advertising in an online food delivery platform

Abstract

Food delivery apps guarantee access to food during the COVID-19 pandemic when commercial establishments are closed and access to food retail is controlled. This study aimed to describe the ads published in a food delivery app in Brazilian capitals, during 13th and 14th week of the pandemic. Data collection occurred on one day of the week and one day of the weekend and during lunch and dinner time. A random sample of 25% of the ads (n=1,754) published in this period was classified in accordance to the presence of healthy and unhealthy eating markers and to the use of marketing strategies. Almost 50% of the ads contained at least one unhealthy eating marker and 29.3% at least one healthy eating marker. Ads containing healthy eating markers were more frequent on the weekday (34.2% vs. 24.1% at the weekend) and at lunch (47.5% vs. 16.1% at dinner). Ads containing unhealthy eating markers were more common at the weekend (54.7% vs. 47.8% on the weekday) and at dinner (63.3% vs. 34.2% at lunch). The most common marketing strategies in the ads were: price discounts (91.7%), use of photos (94.0%) and free shipping (45.7%). Combos were frequent on weekday (2.1% vs. 26.4% at the weekend) in addition to photo use (95.2% vs. 92.7% at the weekend). Free shipping and combo strategies prevailed at dinner: 48.0% vs. 42.4% at lunch and 33.4% vs. 23.6% at lunch, respectively. In sum, food delivery app proved to be an obesogenic food environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consumer experiences of food environments during the Covid-19 pandemic: Global insights from a rapid online survey of individuals from 119 countries

“…Of these, nearly half were conducted in the United States of America (USA) (n = 4) ( Adams et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Hammons and Robart, 2021 ; Silva et al, 2021 ), followed by two in Latin America (Brazil, Mexico) ( Gonzalez-Alejo et al, 2020 ; Horta et al, 2021 ), and one each in Africa (Zimbabe) ( Murendo et al, 2021 ), Asia (China) ( Ahmed et al, 2020 ), and the Pacific Islands (Samoa) ( Emiliata et al, 2020 ). The majority of studies reported changes in external food environments, including the natural, built ( Ahmed et al, 2020 ; FAO, 2020 ) and digital ( Horta et al, 2021 ), home food environments ( Adams et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Hammons and Robart, 2021 ), and household and individual-level food acquisition practices ( Emiliata et al, 2020 ; Murendo et al, 2021 ; Silva et al, 2021 ) since the onset of the pandemic, with differences and similarities observed between level of country development, stringency of pandemic-related mitigation strategies, and socio-economic status. The one multi-country study that has been conducted interviewed urban food system stakeholders such as provincial government officers ( FAO, 2020 ).…”

Is Physical Activity Protective against Emotional Eating Associated Factors during the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Cross-Sectional Study among Physically Active and Inactive Adults

“…There was a 10% increase in the use of delivery apps in Brazil during the pandemic [69], and it is known that these applications are characterized as obesogenic because they offer large amounts of ultra-processed foods rich in sugar and fat [70]. Furthermore, these apps intensified their marketing strategies during the pandemic to encourage consumers to purchase these foods [71], and successfully, since a study conducted in the United States showed that individuals are more motivated to wait, work, and pay more for fast food, sweets, and desserts delivery during the pandemic [72], which in turn also had their consumption increased and associated with EE during the pandemic [42,51].…”

Effectiveness of Digital Platforms as Food and Beverage Marketing Media During the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…The third marketing strategy is to install and activate GoFood services to promote and sell products, cooperate with Grab and Gojek services for food delivery, online brochure creation and also provide discounts for GoFood and Shopeefood users, and implement sales on take away, delivery order, pick-up, drive-through and also use online food delivery platform (OFD) while offering special offers (Junus et al, 2020 ;Setyowati & Tutiasri, 2021 ;Al-hakim et al, 2021 ;Sukma, 2021 ;Yilmaz &Şahin, 2021 andHorta et al, 2021). The fourth marketing strategy is to include license number of innovating with various flavor variants, not using harmful and safe to consume materials, and using common hashtags to make customer appeal increase (Astutik et al, 2021 andWhite et al, 2020).…”