Canadian scientists give thumbs down to fast food, sugary drink posts aimed at kids

Social media marketing of fast food, soft drinks, chocolate and other snacks contribute to "normalizing" unhealthy eating, say Canadian researchers calling for policies to protect children and teens.

Social media is emerging as a top source of youth exposure to marketing promoting products that are poor in nutrients, they say.

Now 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 beverages were the most common social media posts mentioning products.

Study author Monique Potvin Kent, a professor in the school of epidemiology and public health at the University of Ottawa, previously estimated Canadian children see more than 4,000 food and beverage ads per year on social media using their digital devices. For teens, it's 9,000 ads.

"Even if you're the most conscientious parent who gives their child healthy eating messages on a daily basis, how can you compete with 4,000 messages a year? It's impossible," Potvin Kent said.

Potvin Kent's own children are now grown, but she started researching the ads when her then three-year-old asked to go to a specific fast-food restaurant "every single day," an example of what researchers call "pester behaviour."

Changes in the "food environment," which includes the availability of junk food, the price of healthy foods and factors like advertisingall impact food intake, she said.

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

Last year, the World Health Organization recommended mandatory regulation of marketing of food and nonalcoholic beverages high in saturated fat, trans fat, salt and certain sugars.

Charlene Elliott, a professor with the University of Calgary's department of communication, media and film, studies how food marketers try to appeal to teens. She wasn't involved in the Ottawa study.

"The study reveals the stunning reach of food brand related posts on social media in 2020," Elliott said. "With the growth in popularity of social media sites, especially with young people, one can only assume that the volume of messaging would be even higher today."

In 2022, a systematic review of studies on the effects of marketing of unhealthy products through social media or advergaming overt and covert ads that children are exposed to as they play video games "has a significant effect on pester behaviours, food choice, and food intake of children."

Potvin Kent's team called the dominance of fast food ads worrisome among all ages since eating the foods is associated with worse health outcomes, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Brand posts and mentions

The latest study looked at social media engagement in 2020 on Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr and YouTube. Facebook and Instagram data were not available to analyze.

The brands were mentioned over 16 million times by users.

Future research needs to directly link youth interactions with the posts and food choices, the studies authors said in acknowledging they inferred the ages of users.

Elliott said the latest findings suggestthe need to dig into how children and teens are targeted and what's "salient" to them.

While the data was queried with location codes for Canada, untagged posts from users outside the country may have been snagged.

Potvin Kent and her co-authors urged governments to make regulations to protect children's health by limiting their exposure to unhealthy food marketing.

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For instance, Quebec bansany commercial advertising directed at children under the age of 13 on the internet, radio, television, mobile, signs, promotional items, and printed materials, based on their cognitive ability to recognize the intent of ads, Elliott said.

Chile goes further, removing characters from cereal boxes, Potvin Kent said. The United Kingdom is looking to expand its TV marketing restrictions to include digital platforms.

"What we really need is for government to step in ... and restrict unhealthy food and beverage marketing to children," Potvin Kent said.