Food marketing online
Marketing has long been a feature of our daily landscape. But the explosion of digital culture in recent years has dramatically changed the playing field and the rules, especially for children and teenagers, and companies marketing fast food, snack food, and soft drinks are at the forefront of the game.1
Young people’s relationship with media is no longer limited to the passive, one-sided consumption of TV commercials, print ads, and the like. Now our kids are interacting with brands and products every day, often unwittingly inviting marketers to connect with them and their friends online. Marketers are carefully tracking teens online and by cell phone, mining conversations on Facebook and Twitter, collecting data to develop and record personalized behavioral profiles, and more. Today, powerful and intense promotions are completely, seamlessly integrated into young people’s social relationships and minute-by-minute interactions.2
To learn more about the cutting-edge and often deceptive tactics food and beverage marketers use to target kids and youth, check out the below resources. To learn what the federal government is currently doing (and not doing) to address such market, visit our policy section.
Learn more
Webinar: What you need to know to promote healthy eating in your state — slides and full recording
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Food Marketing Workgroup, National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity
A review of food marketing to children and adolescents: Follow-up report, December 2012
Federal Trade Commission
Website: digitalads.org
Berkeley Media Studies Group, Center for Digital Democracy
The new age of food marketing: How companies are targeting and luring our kids — and what advocates can do about it
Center for Digital Democracy, Public Health Law & Policy, and Berkeley Media Studies Group
Food marketing in the digital age: A conceptual framework and agenda for research
Kathyrn Montgomery and Sonya Grier (American University), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy), and Lori Dorfman (Berkeley Media Studies Group)
Peeking behind the curtain: Food and marketing industry research supporting digital media marketing to children and adolescents
Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy), Andrew Cheyne and Lori Dorfman (both of Berkeley Media Studies Group)
Video: Digital food and beverage marketing to children and adolescents
featuring an interview with Lori Dorfman, director of Berkeley Media Studies Group
References
1. Text from The new age of food marketing: How companies are targeting and luring our kids — and what advocates can do about it, a report from Berkeley Media Studies Group.
2. Text from The new age of food marketing: How companies are targeting and luring our kids — and what advocates can do about it, a report from Berkeley Media Studies Group.
