Online marketing of food products to children: the effects of national consumer policies in high‐income countries

Abstract

PurposeThe marketing of food products to children through online media has grown rapidly in recent years, particularly in high‐income countries, where children spend considerable amounts of time on computers. Most food products marketed to children online are obesity‐causing, and childhood obesity has grown to epidemic proportions, with harmful effects on society. Marketers use creative methods to engage children online, entertaining them, offering rewards and promoting products through interactive activities. Online media is monitored much less than conventional media and little is known about online marketing of food to children. This study seeks to examine policies related to food marketing in three high‐income countries, France, Spain, and the USA, and their impact on the methods marketers use to engage children.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a conceptual framework linking several aspects of the policies and the socio‐cultural environments in these countries with the design of the food companies' web sites. Six hypotheses are advanced based on this framework and tested using content analysis.FindingsThe findings of this study indicate that there are significant differences in online marketing of food products to children in the three countries studied in the authors' research, France, Spain, and the USA, and these differences are largely attributable to these countries' policies. The web sites of French food companies placed greater emphasis on nutrition‐related and interactions‐related features compared to the web sites of US and Spanish food companies. On the other hand, the web sites of US and Spanish food companies placed greater emphasis on games‐related, rewards‐related, attributes‐related, and brand‐related features compared to the web sites of French food companies. These differences in the web sites were conceptualized to result from the differences in the socio‐cultural and policy/regulatory environments of the three countries.Originality/valueThe study provides several useful insights related to understanding of consumer behavior, consumer policy, and design of food companies' web sites in the three countries. The design of food companies' web sites in terms of their emphasis on different categories of features reflects the companies' understanding of consumers in the respective country and government policy and enforcement of online communications. The article provides a conceptual framework that identifies six factors hypothesized to influence the design of food companies' web sites, three related to the socio‐cultural environment, namely attitudes toward health and nutrition, food and nutrition communication, and brand building, and three related to the policy/regulatory environment, namely, government regulatory agencies, self‐regulation by companies, and enforcement and compliance.

Beyond Food Promotion: A Systematic Review on the Influence of the Food Industry on Obesity-Related Dietary Behaviour among Children

“…Whilst most studies examined a broad range of ages (about 2 to 11 years), nine had a narrow age range of two or three years [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. With respect to methodology, four studies were descriptive [ 29 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], ten were content analysis [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], five were quasi-experimental [ 9 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], nine were experimental [ 22 , 23 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ] and seven were correlational studies [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ].…”

“…Only three studies analysed the nature and effects of online food marketing on children [ 38 , 40 , 53 ]. Their findings suggest that so-called “advergames” may have a significant influence on diet-related behaviours in children.…”

Evaluating Industry Self-Regulation of Food Marketing to Children

“…Rather, the drop is more likely related to a shift in marketing tactics that has seen food advertisers migrate to new media such as Internet-based advergames and social media, both of which allow them to reach children more cheaply and with less public scrutiny as compared with TV advertising. 19,25,26 Despite the recent decline in the volume of child-targeted food ads, foods/beverages remain among the most heavily advertised products on TV. Given the dramatic growth of child-targeted food marketing in new media, many estimates indicate that children are now exposed to heavier doses of advertising for unhealthy products than ever before.…”

AdHealth: a feasibility study to measure digital food marketing to adolescents through Facebook

“…Limitations A limitation of this study is that the age bracket of 16-18 year olds was too narrow, as research has shown that food and digital marketing is more pervasive among younger adolescents and children (5,32,33) , although this might be due to the dominance of literature assessing food marketing that predominately involves children, not teenagers. Younger children are more vulnerable to online advertising and companies use users' personal data to target them (5,13,34,35) . This personal data is not available to researchers to expose this problem, shown by the difficulty of obtaining ethics approval for this pilot when involving a younger target audience.…”