What tactics do food corporations use to market and sell their products, especially to young people?

by Megan LoDolce, MA

Summer 2015

Children today may be the first generation to alive shorter lives than their parents.

The diet of children today is full of sugar and fatty and contains too little fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Research suggests that our food environment is largely responsible. Only 10 percent of a person's daily calories should come up from "empty calories," or calories from sugar and saturated fat. Yet, 40 percent of the calories that children accept in are empty, and they are consumed well-nigh frequently in foods similar desserts, pizza, fruit drinks and soda. In fact, 60 per centum of children eat too little fruit and a whopping 95 percent swallow too few vegetables.

Many manufacturers of "kids' foods" argue that kids won't eat healthy foods. They argue that they are providing convenient options for parents, merely consider the long-term effects of an unhealthy diet. Today, one out of every three children is affected by excess weight or obesity. These children are more likely to continue living with obesity equally adults. Type 2 diabetes was once "adult onset" diabetes considering it never occurred in children, but this is not an appropriate title today. According to a contempo study, 23 percent of adolescents had prediabetes or diabetes in 2007 to 2008, compared with just 9 percent in 1999 to 2000.

There are other serious life-long consequences to consuming a poor diet as a child. These include heart disease, cancer, strokes and arthritis. Proper nutrition in babyhood is necessary during a time of critical growth, and a poor diet can have negative outcomes, whether a child has backlog weight or non.

What does this have to do with food marketing?

Getting kids to consume salubrious is much tougher than just saying "no" to junk food. Today's food environment makes it very hard to feed children a healthy diet. Unhealthy nutrient is everywhere, information technology's easy to become, and it'southward quick and frequently costs less than healthy food. So-chosen "kids' foods" have poor nutritional quality – they are especially high in added saccharide. The most harmful feature of the nutrient environment may exist how these foods are marketed to children. This is a major public wellness business concern.

Food marketing is everywhere. It'southward powerful, and it's effective. It's particularly effective for children and teens, who are a much more vulnerable audition. The nutrient industry spent a total of 15 billion dollars in 2014 on all food, beverage and restaurant marketing in the United States. To provide a means of comparison, in the same year, the National Institutes of Health spent 12.5 billion on cardiovascular illness, type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension and prevention research combined.

The food industry spent $i.eight billion in 2009 on marketing aimed specifically at children. Most of what the industry spends on nutrient marketing to youth promotes unhealthy foods and drinks. Sugary drinks and cereals, processed, sweet and salty snacks and fast food make up 91 pct of spending dollars. On television alone children run into about xiii food ads every single day, and teens meet nearly 16. 9 out of x of these ads are for products high in common salt, carbohydrate and fatty. Only one of these 10 food ads are for fruits and vegetables. There is simply no competition.

Nutrient marketing reaches far beyond television advertising. Companies marketplace to children in the communities where they live. They market to children in their schools. They are also turning to digital media to get their attention.

Children now spend well-nigh of their time in the digital media infinite, interacting with their peers, out of sight of their parents. Companies know this and market to children anywhere and everywhere they spend their time. A 2009 report showed that 11 to 14-year-olds spent about ane 60 minutes and 46 minutes online every twenty-four hours. Nearly every food brand that markets food products to children has a Web site designed simply for them. These sites are full of games, virtual worlds and other clever interactive activities. They are highly engaging and very difficult to resist for a child. Children spend time on other types of Web sites also, such as "coolmath-games.com." Here, they are bombarded by banner advertisements on the elevation or sides of the folio as they play games for free. These ads compete for their attention.

Youth also see advertising when interacting with their friends on social media. They see display ads on Facebook, for case, only they also see posts notifying them of their friends "liking" brands such equally Doritos and Pepsi.  In this way, youth aid companies in their marketing efforts. Simply past endorsing products they like, they provide complimentary marketing for companies.

Children come across far more advertising in digital media than most parents realize. The use of social media to market place foods and beverages has exploded. In 2012, half-dozen billion fast food advertisements appeared on Facebook. Starbucks, McDonald'southward, and Subway ranked in the pinnacle-12 of all brands on Facebook that year, with more 23 million "likes." Coca-Cola, Cherry-red Bull, and Pepsi were the top-iii drink brands on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in 2013. Coca-Cola was "liked" by more than 84 one thousand thousand people on Facebook in 2014 (a 174 percent increase since 2011). The brand had ii.five meg Twitter followers in the aforementioned year (a 766 percentage increase since 2011). Pepsi's social media followers increased by 600 per centum on Facebook and by thirty times the number of followers on Twitter from 2011 to 2014.

Children as well use mobile gaming apps frequently on their mobile phones, many of which are free. Nutrient and beverage apps are part of this picture, where the brands really go part of the game. Fanta Fruit Slam, for example, is a dodgeball-type game featuring the soda and starring cartoon Fanta characters.

Ok, so immature people see a lot of unhealthy food marketing. What'southward the big deal?

Food marketing has a direct, powerful impact on immature people's food preferences. It affects eating behaviors and influences diet, weight, and wellness in many negative ways. Watching nutrient ads makes children eat more. It makes them prefer and ask for the foods they meet — sugary drinks and fast nutrient. The Institute of Medicine, World Health Organization, and others concur that nutrient marketing works. Messages in food advertising encourage youth to pester their parents and snack between meals. They create positive emotional associations with the brands that can impairment their health. Food marketers spend a great deal of money and effort appealing to children in very powerful means. These means are difficult to resist; making products appear absurd, fun and exciting.

So what can parents do?

We often hear from parents that they experience in that location'southward nada they can practice to cease this. They feel that marketing is just part of our culture, and that food companies aren't going to heed to them. However, there are ways that parents can protect their children from the negative effects of food marketing in their own homes and communities.

In the Home

Start the conversation.

1 of the most important things nosotros tin can practise with our children is talk to them virtually food marketing and encourage them to talk to u.s.a.. Tell them what marketers are trying to practice when they advertise. Research shows that up until the historic period of eight or so, children are unable to understand that marketing presents a biased point of view. They believe what they see and hear. If an advertisement for sugary cereals shows children having fun, they will believe that they will have fun too.

You are probably familiar with the post-obit scene at the grocery shop: a immature kid begs and pleads for a product on the shelf as a parent grits his or her teeth and oftentimes gives in to avert conflict. Maybe this has happened to you.

This is what marketers desire to happen. They actually accept a name for it. Information technology'south chosen "pester ability," and marketers talk about it at conferences and think information technology works. When your kid asks for an advertised food, explain why y'all don't want to purchase it. Explain how the advertiser has spent a cracking deal of money trying to convince them that they must have this food.

Remove TV'south, computers and other screens from bedrooms.

Inquiry shows that having a television in a child's bedroom increases their screen fourth dimension by 1 to two hours per twenty-four hour period, increasing the adventure of becoming overweight past 31 percent, and reducing the amount of time they spend reading, sleeping and enjoying their hobbies. Youth are spending more fourth dimension on smart phones, computers and tablets, and this is screen time as well. Make a curfew for such devices and remove them from your child's room later a given time.

Change at Schoolhouse

Find out how much food marketing your kid sees in school.

Nearly lxx percentage of elementary and centre schoolhouse students encounter some grade of nutrient-related marketing in school. According to a 2012 FTC study, food companies spent near $149 meg in schools in 2009. Most of this coin was spent on contracts to sell foods in schools, outside the school meal plan. Almost 93 percent of this was marketing for beverages, especially soda. Products marketed well-nigh oft to children in school contain an average of 19 grams of added sugar (about 5 teaspoons).

Marketers see schools as an opportunity to get easy access to children and a captive audience. Learn about nutrient marketing in your child'south school. Look for sales of branded nutrient for fundraisers, company-sponsored classroom materials (like Grand&Ms counting books), logos on scoreboards, coolers and sporting equipment, incentive programs for food purchases (Box Tops for educational activity, etc.), and company-sponsored events. If you detect things similar this and you don't like it, talk to other parents almost it and see if they agree.

There are ways to brand a difference in school. At that place are other options for healthy fundraisers, such equally fruit baskets, "walk-a-thon" type fundraisers and talent shows. Schools are now required to have a wellness policy, and information technology must accost food marketing. You can even serve on the commission for creating this policy.

Change on a Larger Scale
We have enormous power every bit consumers. If we need that companies market place healthier foods to kids, food marketers will accept to listen. If we refuse to spend our hard-earned money on unhealthy products, food marketers will have to listen. Public health officials, advocates, policy makers and legislators will continue to work hard to gainsay the toxic food environment. If consumers join the fight, at that place is no limit to the positive alter we tin make for children.

About the Author:
Megan LoDolce, MA, is a Inquiry Associate at the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. The Rudd Center employs a diverse group of global experts on obesity. The mission of the Middle is to better the food environment and fight weight stigma. Megan has studied the scope and touch of nutrient marketing to children since 2008. She leads content analysis research on the food marketing team, and looks at the various techniques and messages nutrient marketers use to appeal to children in the media.

Resource:
To learn more than about nutrient marketing and find helpful resources, run into the following links:

More on food marketing to youth:
www.uconnruddcenter.org/food-marketing

Related Resources

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Source: https://www.obesityaction.org/resources/food-marketing-to-children-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/

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