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Food Marketing to Children

Although the psychological evidence indicates that food marketing effects people of all ages, public health efforts are primarily focused on food marketing directed at children, because children are considered particularly vulnerable to such influences and do not necessarily have the ability to understand that unhealthy food is bad for them. Moreover, legal solutions to restrict marketing to adults are seen as paternalistic and have serious First Amendment implications. Conversely, many people consider protecting children to be a significantly more acceptable role for government to play.

Concerns over food marketing to children are not new. In 2004, Congress directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support an evidence-based review on the effect that food marketing has on the diet and health of young people.[1] The CDC funded the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a comprehensive study. The IOM issued a seminal report, Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?, in 2005. According to this report, the IOM found strong evidence that exposure to television advertising is associated with adiposity in youth ages 2-18 years, but the evidence did not establish a definite causal relationship between television advertising and adiposity. In terms of influence, the IOM found strong evidence that television advertising influences the food and beverage preferences, purchase requests, and short-term consumption of children ages 2-11 years. The IOM also found “moderate evidence” that television advertising influences the food and beverage beliefs of children ages 2-11 years. For these particular findings, there was insufficient evidence regarding youth 12-18 years old. Television advertising remains the most prominent method of marketing food to children.[2] At the time of the IOM report (2005), digital media were not being used to market as extensively as it is now. For example, Facebook was only just founded as a school-based social media platform in 2004[3] and Twitter did not yet exist. The IOM’s finding that television advertising influences children’s food and beverage preferences and purchase requests confirms that this food marketing strategy is effective.

It has been documented that the food industry utilizes a specific method of promotion to encourage children to request advertised products from their parents repeatedly.[3] This method is called the “pester power,” or “the nag factor.” The

American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Advertising and Children found that marketers even employ child psychologists who apply principles of developmental psychology to effectively induce children to nag their parents to buy the advertised product.[3]

The IOM also concluded that “[m]ost children ages 8 years and under do not effectively comprehend the persuasive intent of marketing messages, and most children ages 4 years and under cannot consistently discriminate between television commercials and programming.”[6] The American Psychological Association’s Task Force similarly found that children younger than age 7-8 years are uniquely vulnerable to television advertising because they lack the ability to distinguish between claims intended to persuade them and truthful statements.[7]

Out of concern for the rising rates of obesity in the United States, in 2005, Congress directed the FTC to collect data on food marketing directed at youth.[8] To obtain the information sought by Congress, the FTC issued subpoenas to 44 food and beverage companies that market food to young people. In 2008, the FTC issued its report, Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation, on food marketing practices directed at youth 2 to 17 years old. Based on the companies’ 2006 data, it originally reported that the industry spent $1.6 billion marketing to youth;[8] however, in its subsequent report the FTC corrected this to $2.1 billion to include the cost of premiums.[10] The primary method of communication remained traditional media, that is, television, radio, and print advertising. The second type of communication was through premiums, which mostly consisted of toy premiums provided with quick-service restaurant children’s meals. This was followed by other promotional marketing, which included product placements, movie theaters, video, video games, character or cross-promotion license fees, athletic sponsorships, celebrity endorsement fees, events, retail and packaging, schools, and, finally, the smallest percentage was dedicated to digital media. The vast majority of food marketing was for a short list of foods and beverages. In order of expenditure, they were: carbonated beverages, quick-service restaurant foods, breakfast cereal, juice and other noncarbonated beverages, snack foods, candy, and frozen desserts.

In December 2012, the FTC issued a follow-up report. The agency had subpoenaed 48 companies to create the subsequent report based on 2009 data. The FTC found that the industry spent $1.79 billion marketing to youth, with $1 billion directed at children ages 2-11 years, $1 billion directed at youth ages 12-17 years, and $263 million overlapping between the two age groups.[11] Three products accounted for 72% of all marketing: quick-service restaurant foods, carbonated beverages, and breakfast cereals. Most of the advertising for carbonated beverages was directed at youth 12-17 years old, and snack foods rounded out the top three list for children ages 2-11 years. Although overall spending had decreased since the 2008 report, it is noteworthy that spending on digital advertising increased. Digital marketing includes marketing on commercial websites, third-party Internet advertising (i.e., placement of banner advertising on other companies’ websites), social media, and advergames.[12] Some of the reduced spending was the result of fewer in-store marketing promotions, as well as lower premium costs because restaurants reported selling fewer kids meals with toys to children, and the cost of these toys was less than in previous years.

  • [1] National Research Council. Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2006.
  • [2] Federal Trade Commission. Review of Food Marketing to Children andAdolescents—Follow-Up Report. December 2012. http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/review-food-marketing-children-and-adolescents-follow-report/12122ifoodmarketingreport.pdf
  • [3] Sarah Phillips. A brief history of Facebook. The Guardian. July 24, 2007. http://www.the-guardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia
  • [4] Sarah Phillips. A brief history of Facebook. The Guardian. July 24, 2007. http://www.the-guardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia
  • [5] Sarah Phillips. A brief history of Facebook. The Guardian. July 24, 2007. http://www.the-guardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia
  • [6] Sarah Phillips. A brief history of Facebook. The Guardian. July 24, 2007. http://www.the-guardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia Executive Summary, p. 9.
  • [7] J. L. Pomeranz. Television food marketing to children revisited: the Federal TradeCommission has the constitutional and statutory authority to regulate. Journal of Law Medicineand Ethics. 201038: 98-116.
  • [8] Federal Trade Commission. Marketing Food To Children and Adolescents: A Review ofIndustry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation: A Federal Trade Commission ReportTo Congress. July 2008. http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/marketing-food-children-and-adolescents-review-industry-expenditures-activities-and-self-regulation/p064504foodmktingreport.pdf
  • [9] Federal Trade Commission. Marketing Food To Children and Adolescents: A Review ofIndustry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation: A Federal Trade Commission ReportTo Congress. July 2008. http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/marketing-food-children-and-adolescents-review-industry-expenditures-activities-and-self-regulation/p064504foodmktingreport.pdf
  • [10] Federal Trade Commission. Review of Food Marketing to Children andAdolescents—Follow-Up Report. December 2012. http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/review-food-marketing-children-and-adolescents-follow-report/121221foodmarketingreport.pdf
  • [11] Federal Trade Commission. Review of Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents—Follow-Up Report. December 2012. http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/review-food-marketing-children-and-adolescents-follow-report/12122ifoodmarketingreport.pdf
  • [12] J. L. Harris, S. E. Speers, M. B. Schwartz, K. D. Brownell. U.S. food company branded advergames on the Internet: Children’s exposure and effects on snack consumption. Journal of Childrenand Media. 2012;6(i):5i-68.
 
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