Promotion of Food and Beverages by German-Speaking Influencers Popular with Adolescents on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram

Abstract

The promotion of nutritionally poor food and beverages (F&B) has a proven effect on children’s eating preferences and, therefore, plays a significant role in today’s childhood obesity epidemic. This study’s objective was to assess the prevalence (exposure) and context (power) of the F&B cues in influencer content across three platforms: TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. The selected influencers were popular with adolescents, with a combined total of more than 34 million followers/subscribers. We employed the YouTube Influencer Marketing Protocol from the World Health Organization (WHO) as our basis for coding. We analysed a total of 360 videos/posts and, of these, 24% contained F&B cues, which is equivalent to 18.1 F&B cues/hour. In total, 77% of the cues were not permitted for children’s advertising, according to WHO criteria, and this was stable across all platforms, with chocolate and sugary confectionery (23%) as the most frequently featured products. Not-permitted F&B had a four-times higher chance of being branded, a five-times higher chance of being described positively, and received significantly more ‘likes’. In 62% of the analysed presentations, the branded product was mentioned, yet only 6% of the content was labelled as advertising. The present analysis delivers further grounds for discussion for policies and regulations of influencer marketing.

Home cooking in the digital age: When observing food influencers on social media triggers the imitation of their practices

“…Food advertisements and, later, food influencers have also been criticized for negatively influencing food consumption by favoring unhealthy choices and snacking (Beuckels & De Jans, 2022;Coates et al, 2019;Mc Carthy et al, 2022;Smith et al, 2019). Research has suggested that unhealthy foods appear more often and receive more positive reactions on social media than alternative healthy content (Alruwaily et al, 2020;Beuckels & De Jans, 2022;Winzer et al, 2022).…”

“…Food advertisements and, later, food influencers have also been criticized for negatively influencing food consumption by favoring unhealthy choices and snacking (Beuckels & De Jans, 2022; Coates et al, 2019; Mc Carthy et al, 2022; Smith et al, 2019). Research has suggested that unhealthy foods appear more often and receive more positive reactions on social media than alternative healthy content (Alruwaily et al, 2020; Beuckels & De Jans, 2022; Winzer et al, 2022). However, we discovered that many of the aforementioned studies focused on children, who are neither the target audience of many influencers nor common social network users (e.g., Facebook and Instagram users should be older than 13 years to create a profile).…”

“…Building on the aforementioned research initiatives, in this article, we argue that food influencers can have a positive impact on their followers by advocating for home cooking. While previous research has raised concerns about influencers promoting unhealthy foods, most of the related studies have had a broad focus, encompassing various types of influencers promoting different types of food products (Winzer et al, 2022). Alternatively, attention is often directed toward influencers who intentionally focus on diets (Pilař et al, 2021; Vasconcelos et al, 2021).…”

A Novel Multimedia Player for International Standard—JPEG Snack

“…In addition to being the source of entertainment and recreation, short videos play an essential role in the education [ 9 , 10 ], and health industries [ 11 , 12 ] as well. Short videos also promote food and beverages [ 13 ]. As a result of the numerous advantages and excessive consumption of short-form content, the joint photographic experts’ group (JPEG) experts developed an image-rich content-based international standard called JPEG Snack [ 14 ].…”

Reach and public health implications of proposed new food marketing regulation in Germany: an updated analysis

“…92% of food advertisements encountered by children in digital and television platforms in Germany are for less healthy products such as fast food, snacks, or sweets [2]. More recently, social media and influencer-based marketing campaigns have emerged as influential channels [3]. There is strong direct and indirect evidence that exposure to marketing of unhealthy foods is associated with an increased risk for childhood overweight and obesity [4][5][6][7][8].…”