Fast food, beverage, and snack brands on social media in the United States: An examination of marketing techniques utilized in 2000 brand posts

Abstract

Summary Background Exposure to food advertisements is associated with poor diet among youth, and food and beverage companies are increasingly advertising on social media sites that are popular among youth. Objective To identify the prevalence of social media advertising among fast food, beverage, and snack companies and examine advertising techniques they use on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Vine. Methods We quantified the increase in the creation of social media accounts from 2007 to 2016 among 200 fast food, beverage, and snack brands from the United States. We conducted content analyses to examine the marketing themes and healthfulness of products featured in 2000 posts from a subset of 20 brands and used multilevel regression to assess associations between marketing themes (eg, adolescents socializing) and interactive tools (eg, hashtags). Results Two hundred brands collectively managed 568 accounts in 2016. Content analyses revealed that unique social media features (eg, geo‐tags) appeared in 74.5% (n = 1489) of posts, and 31.5% (n = 630) were interactive. Posts featuring adolescents were more likely to be interactive than posts featuring adults (P < 0.001). Two‐thirds (67.9%; n = 362) of foods shown were unhealthy, and 61.2% (n = 435) of beverages were sugar sweetened. Conclusions Social media food advertising is pervasive and uses interactive tools to engage with users.

An accountability evaluation for the responsible use of celebrity endorsement by the food and beverage industry to promote healthy food environments for young Americans: A narrative review to inform obesity prevention policy

“…Bragg 76 concluded that accounts for food, beverage, and snack brands on five social media platforms (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Vine) increased 567% between 2007 and 2016. Two thirds (67.9%) of promoted foods were unhealthy, and 61.2% of beverages were sugary beverages 76 . Nineteen percent of all identified posts featured a celebrity or cross‐promotional theme (e.g., Olympics) 76 .…”

“…Two thirds (67.9%) of promoted foods were unhealthy, and 61.2% of beverages were sugary beverages 76 . Nineteen percent of all identified posts featured a celebrity or cross‐promotional theme (e.g., Olympics) 76 . Additionally, Fleming‐Milici 77 examined food and beverage marketing on tablet, smartphone, or other digital and mobile devices found that 70% of adolescents engaged with food and beverage brands on social media, and 50% engaged with unhealthy food and beverage products.…”

“…2% of beverages were sugary beverages 76. Nineteen percent of all identified posts featured a celebrity or cross-promotional theme (e.g., Olympics) 76.…”

Examining the Relationship between Youth-Targeted Food Marketing Expenditures and the Demographics of Social Media Followers

“…Our findings build upon those studies by demonstrating that 6.2 million adolescents are following food and beverage ads on Instagram and Twitter. Adolescents' willingness to "opt in" for additional advertising exposure is concerning given that these brands post thousands of ads on social media annually [34]. The Federal Trade Commission should require disclosures (e.g., "This is advertising") on posts made by food and beverage companies who manage these free social media accounts.…”

Use of advertising strategies to target children in sugar‐sweetened beverages packaging in Mexico and the nutritional quality of those beverages

“…37 On the other hand, studies of the exposure of advertising directed to children and adolescents in social network, reported that 61% of the posts correspond to SSBs. 38 Some studies found that up to 14% of product packages aimed at children use technology packaging (suckers, unusual shapes or straws). 32,35 We reported that 53.1% of beverages with child-directed strategies use this strategy, but this difference can be explained by the type of products analyzed; it is more common for beverages to T A B L E 4 Proportion of advertising strategies to children stratified by types of beverage in beverages with child-directed strategies (n = 405) called this strategy "technology of packaging", which is more frequent in products aimed at children.…”