Food companies’ unhealthy internet influence on ‘cyberteens’
The authors claim that US regulation of children’s and teenagers’ advertising has been largely based on evidence about television advertising from the 1970s, but that the internet needs to be examined separately because teenagers in particular are influenced by it differently.
The article, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, said: “In the Internet era, children and teens are not passive viewers; they are active participants and content creators in an interactive digital environment that pervades their personal and social lives.”
There are many reasons why teenagers are an important group for internet marketing of food and drink: They spend an average of $46 a month online; they are more impulsive in their purchases than either adults or children; and they tend to engage in online marketing initiatives, such as Facebook and YouTube campaigns that can incorporate content creation.
“As the media marketplace continues its rapid transformation, becoming a ubiquitous presence in young people’s lives, further academic research is needed to understand fully the nature, scope, and extent of interactive advertising’s impact on youth,” the authors wrote.
They criticize the self-regulatory marketing guidelines used by the food and beverage industry – as well as by advertisers at large – saying they are “narrowly focused” on children under the age of 12.
“Although this model may have been appropriate when television was the primary advertising medium, it has limited utility for addressing the changing media and marketing landscape. Nor does it provide guidance for understanding the role of adolescents in the digital marketplace,” they wrote.
The question of whether regulation of food marketing should extend beyond young children was also brought up in March when the government set up the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children. The group’s remit encompasses marketing to all children under the age of 18, but some members of industry have been resistant to this extension.
Spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association Scott Openshaw said at the time that the proposal to set up the Working Group used “broad, misdirected language that goes far beyond marketing to children. Too far.”
But the authors of this latest review conclude that “given the increasing interest in addressing the role food marketing plays in the global youth obesity crisis, there is a need for a coordinated international research and policy effort.”
Source: Journal of Adolescent Health
45 (2009) S18–S29
“Interactive Food and Beverage Marketing: Targeting Adolescents in the Digital Age”
Authors: Kathryn C. Montgomery and Jeff Chester.
