Canadian scientists praise reports of fast food and sugary drinks aimed at children

Social media marketing of fast food, soft drinks, chocolate and other snacks is helping to ‘normalize’ unhealthy eating, say Canadian researchers who are calling for policies to protect children and teens.

Social media is emerging as one of the top sources of youth exposure to marketing that promotes nutrient-poor products, they say.

Now, according to a study published in Thursday’s issue of the journal PLOS Digital Health has focused on the 40 food brands with the highest sales in Canada. Fast food restaurants and sugar-sweetened drinks were the most common social media posts mentioning products.

Study author Monique Potvin Kent, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s school of epidemiology and public health, previously estimated that Canadian children see more than 4,000 food and drink advertisements on social media each year using their digital devices. For teenagers it is 9,000 advertisements.

“Even if you’re the most conscientious parent who sends their child daily messages about healthy eating, how can you compete with 4,000 messages a year? That’s impossible,” says Potvin Kent.

Potvin Kent’s own children are now adults, but she began investigating the ads when her then-three-year-old child asked if she could go to a specific fast-food restaurant “every day,” an example of what researchers call “bullying behavior.”

Changes in the “food environment,” including the availability of junk food, the price of healthy foods and factors such as advertising, all affect food intake, she said.

Potvin Kent said the food environment should make healthy food choices easier, but that is not reflected in marketing messages.

Last year the World Health Organisation recommended mandatory regulation of the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in saturated fat, trans fat, salt and certain sugars.

Charlene Elliott, a professor at the University of Calgary’s department of communications, media and film, examines how food marketers try to appeal to teens. She was not involved in the Ottawa investigation.

“The research reveals the stunning reach of food brand posts on social media in 2020,” said Elliott. “With the growing popularity of social media sites, especially among young people, one can only assume that the message volume would be even greater today.”

In 2022, a systematic review of studies on the effects of marketing unhealthy products through social media or advergaming – overt and covert advertisements that children are exposed to when they play video games – “has a significant effect on children’s bullying behavior, food choice and food intake. ”

Potvin Kent’s team called the dominance of fast food ads concerning among all ages because eating these foods is associated with worse health outcomes, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Brand posts and mentions

The latest research looked at social media engagement in 2020 across Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr and YouTube. Facebook and Instagram data were not available for analysis.

The brands were mentioned more than 16 million times by users.

Future research should link young people’s interactions directly to the messages and food choices, the study authors said, acknowledging that they had inferred the ages of the users.

Elliott said the latest findings point to the need to investigate how children and teens are targeted and what is “salient” to them.

Although the data was queried using location codes for Canada, untagged posts from users outside the country may have been stuck.

Potvin Kent and her co-authors urged governments to do this regulations to protect children’s health by limiting their exposure to the marketing of unhealthy foods.

LOOK | The science behind why junk food is so irresistible:

The science of addictive foods

Health reporter Kelly Crowe takes us behind the science behind making junk food so irresistible to us.

For example, Quebec prohibits any commercial advertising that targets children under 13 years old on the Internet, radio, television, mobile, signage, promotional items and printed materials, based on their cognitive ability to recognize the intent of advertisements, Elliott said.

Chile go furtherremoving characters from cereal boxes, Potvin Kent said. The United Kingdom wants to extend its TV marketing restrictions to digital platforms.

“What we really need is for the government to step in… and limit the marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks to children,” said Potvin Kent.