Is There A Relationship between Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity?An Analysis Review

Rebecca Skotek

Interest in topic

Pediatric nutrition

Business minor

Overview: Obesity

Overweight: defined as 85th percentile for age and sex

Obesity: defined as 95th percentile for age and sex

1 in 3 children in the United States are overweight

Over 25 million children aged 2-19 1 in 6 children in the United States are obese

12.7 million children aged 2-19

National trend: energy intake as energy output

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Overview: Food Marketing

Food = 12.5% of American consumers’ spending $7 billion spent on food advertising in 1999

That year, USDA spent only $333.3 million on nutrition education

A typical grocery store houses thousands of products

More variety = more profits Items marketed are high in energy: sodium, sugar

and fat 3 to 4-year olds make an average of 24.9 requests every day

Primarily for candy, snack food and toys Marketers especially interested in younger demographicFood Advertising Nutrition Education0

1,000,000,000

2,000,000,000

3,000,000,000

4,000,000,000

5,000,000,000

6,000,000,000

7,000,000,000

8,000,000,000Money spent on Food in 1999 (in dol-

lars)

Product Companies USDA

Sources: United States Department of Agriculture, Gallo 1999

ElectronicExposure

Television commercials

Advergames

Persuasive Characteristics

Role models and popular characters Folkvord et al., 2013

Children perceive (energy-dense) food as being healthier

Lioutas and Tzimitra-Kalogianni, 2014 Positive messaging

Harris et al., 2009

Automatic Snacking

“Priming Effects of Television Food

Advertising on Eating Behavior”

Harris et al. 2009

Non-Electronic Advertising

Toys Incentives In-school marketingProduct placement

Product Placement

Prime shelving spots Musicus et al. 2014

Corporate partnerships Schlosser, 2002

Promotional support- E.T., The Extra Terrestrial

(Conradt 2008)

The Big Question

Marketing healthy foods?

??

??

Marketing Healthy Foods (Does it work?)

The overarching question: Will marketing healthy food using these same tactics increase children’s intake of healthy food?Answer: mixed results

NO:1) “Healthy” McDonald’s Happy Meal

• Boyland et al., 2015

2) Advergame with food cues, general intake

• Folkvord et al., 2013

YES:• Food versus Non-food PacMan advergame

• Pempek and Calvert, 2009

• Branding produce containers• Keller et al., 2012

“Exposure to ‘healthy’ fast food meal bundles in television advertisements promotes liking for fast food but not healthier choices in children”

Boyland et al.2015

59 children (age 7-10)

CONTROL GROUP10 toy advertisements

EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

9 toy advertisements, 1 healthy Happy Meal

advertisement

GREATER liking for fast

food in general

(p=0.004)

Preferences did not

differ

“The effect of playing advergames that promote energy-dense snacks or fruit on actual food intake among children”

Folkvord et al.2013

270 children

(age 8-10)

CONTROL GROUP (n =

69)Ate first,

Then played advergame

FRUIT GROUP

(n = 67)Played fruit advergame

first, Then ate

SNACK GROUP

(n = 69)Played snack advergame

first, Then ate

NON-FOOD GROUP (n =

65)Played non-

food advergame

first, Then ate

1. Children who played EITHER food game ate more than the children in both the non-food and control groups (p < 0.01).2. Children in BOTH food games ate significantly more energy-dense snacks (p <0.01).3. Children in FRUIT group did not eat significantly more fruit than the other groups.

What does this mean?

Stimulus of food causes appetite, regardless of food type

Food cues direct food intake

“Tipping the Balance: Use of Advergames to Promote Consumption of Nutritious Foods and Beverages by Low-Income African American Children”

Pempek and Calvert 2009

28 children(age 9-10)

FRUIT GROUPPlayed fruit

advergame first,Then ate

SNACK GROUPPlayed snack

advergame first,Then ate

CONTROL GROUPAte first,

Then played advergame

Children who played fruit version chose significantly

healthier snacks and children who played snack version chose less healthy snacks

(p=0.001).

“With only 10 minutes of exposure, our results revealed that children selected and ate whatever snacks were being

marketed by the advergame, healthy or not.”

“The impact of food branding on children’s eating behavior and obesity”

Keller et al. 2012

16 children(age 4-5)at risk for

obesityEXPERIMENTA

L GROUP(n = 7)

Containers decorated with favorite cartoon

characters, stickers inside

CONTROL GROUP(n = 9)

Containers undecorated, no incentive

inside

All children’s parents received

24 8-oz containers filled with ready-to-eat produce

All children offered their

fruit/vegetable of choice 3x/day

7 weeks, meet weekly

(2 serving) Total

fruit/vegetable consumption by

125g

No change in fruit/vegetable consumption

(p=0.07)Packaging removed,

200g (3 full servings!!) in 4 more

days

Takeaways Obvious stimuli may drive choices May be possible to promote healthy food intake among children by manipulating branding cues

Conclusion

Implications (of obesity)Mixed study resultsFuture researchWhat we can do about it

Tips for parents Educate children themselves Policy makers

Questions?