Impact of unhealthy food marketing on children

Australian children see and interact with a large number of promotions for unhealthy foods that come from a variety of sources. Australian children of 5 to 8-years-old are exposed to at least 827 unhealthy food advertisements on television each year.¹ Australian adolescents are exposed to almost 100 promotions each week coming from online sources.² The majority of food and drink advertisements near schools and on children’s journeys to schools feature unhealthy products.³⁴ A study from Perth showed that schools have an average of 36 food advertisements within 500 m of the grounds.³ There is also evidence of a social inequality in the marketing of unhealthy foods in Australia. More food advertisements and a higher proportion of unhealthy food advertisements are found near schools in lower socioeconomic areas.³ The highest proportion of advertisements for unhealthy foods in Australian train stations occurs in areas with the lowest socioeconomic status.⁵⁶

Food marketing takes advantage of the developmental vulnerabilities of children and adolescents. When viewing television, for example, children younger than about 5 years are unable to tell the difference between a program and an advertisement. Even older children who can identify advertising lack the cognitive skills and experience to critically interpret marketing messages.⁷ Adolescent brains are biased towards rewards and they are more likely to respond to cues in the environment, such as marketing.⁸ When rating the riskiness of everyday situations, young adolescents are heavily influenced by the opinions of their peers, suggesting they place high importance on conformity.⁹

Unhealthy food marketing targets children as consumers in their own right, and as intermediaries who can influence other consumers, particularly their parents (‘pester power’) and peers.¹⁰

Researchers have described a “cascade of effects” in which exposure to unhealthy food marketing influences children’s brand awareness and preferences, and consequent purchases and consumption.^6111213 Exposure to unhealthy food advertisements increases food intake in children.¹² For example, an Australian study showed that children aged 7 to 12 years increased food intake following exposure to unhealthy food marketing, and did not compensate for this by reducing food intake at a subsequent meal.¹⁴ How often children consume unhealthy foods may be associated with the level of emotional arousal (positive feelings of happiness and satisfaction) that they experience after exposure to marketing.⁶¹⁵

Television advertising of unhealthy food

Commercial television viewing is independently associated with obesity in children (not just because it is a sedentary activity) and researchers conclude this link is likely due to advertising of unhealthy foods.¹⁶ The promotion of unhealthy products not only encourages brand switching within a product category but increases consumption of particular categories of foods including fast food and soft drinks.¹⁷ It attracts new customers¹¹ and establishes societal norms around acceptable and desirable foods.⁶¹⁸

Studies from many countries have shown that marketing of unhealthy foods on television frequently targets children. Internationally, unhealthy food advertisements are more frequent during children’s typical viewing times, during school holidays, on children’s channels and around children’s programming.⁶ In Australia, unhealthy food and drink advertisements are more common during children’s peak viewing times, but less common during school holidays.¹⁹²⁰²¹ A wide range of creative strategies are used that are likely to appeal to young people. These include celebrity endorsements, animations and promotional characters. International studies of television and other media have shown that these creative strategies were more common in the marketing of food to children than to adults.⁶

A study of English children aged 6 to 13 years found that children had a greater preference for high-fat and high-carbohydrate foods (both branded and unbranded) after being exposed to food advertisements, compared to when the same children were shown control advertisements on a separate occasion. The effect was greatest in children who had high regular levels of television viewing.²²

Researchers have calculated that the average Australian 5 to 8-year-old, who watches around 80 minutes of television each day, is exposed to at least 827 advertisements or four hours of unhealthy food advertising on television each year.¹ An Australian study of children aged 10 to 16 years found exposure to television advertising – not just the amount of time spent watching television – was associated with increased consumption of unhealthy food and drinks. The study found that the link between television viewing and poor diet was strongest for children who watched the most commercial television and were exposed to advertisements at the time of broadcast or did not skip through advertisements in television recordings.²³ Australian children with a lower socioeconomic position are more likely to watch television and for longer periods of time than those with a higher socioeconomic position.²⁴

Online marketing of unhealthy food

Digital marketing is becoming an increasingly important tool to market unhealthy food to children and teenagers. On a typical weekday, Australian 15-year-olds spend about two hours online when they are not at school, and a quarter of them are online for more than four hours.²⁵ Research by the Australian Communications and Media Authority involving children aged 8 to 17 found children spend longer periods of time online as they grow older. Digital media becomes central to their lives, particularly through social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.²⁶

Australian adolescents spend increasingly large amounts of time online. This time is spent on activities such as watching videos or online streaming services, using social media, gaming, listening to music and talking with friends using services such as Discord.²⁷ Unhealthy food marketers can take advantage of these trends to target children and teenagers using digital media in various ways, including through advertisements, product placement, influencer marketing, brand owned content and branded apps and ‘advergames’ created or sponsored by companies to embed products into a game. Marketing on social media encourages teenagers to like and share brand posts with their friends, thereby harnessing the influence of peer networks.²⁸

A recent study of Australian children aged 10 to 16 years found that watching food-branded video content on YouTube and seeing favourite food brands advertised online were significantly associated with higher consumption of unhealthy food and drinks.²⁹ A UK study found an increased intake of unhealthy snacks among children who viewed images of social media ‘influencers’ with unhealthy snacks on Instagram, compared to children who had viewed images of influencers with healthy snacks or non-food products.³⁰

A US study found that playing food-branded ‘advergames’ increased children’s consumption of unhealthy snack foods, compared to playing advergames featuring healthy foods and non-food advergames.³¹ Within advergames, the technique of ‘rewarded video advertising’ in which players are shown an ad before progressing to a new level has been shown to be particularly effective. An Australian study of children aged 7 to 12 found that children exposed to rewarded video advertising within an advergame chose the promoted brand significantly more than children in other arms of the study, when offered a choice of snacks afterwards.³² Children exposed to the rewarded video advertising were far more likely to choose the promoted brand even compared to children who played an advergame with the promoted brand included as high-value game pieces, highlighting the sophisticated nature of advertising techniques being used to market unhealthy food to children online.

Other marketing of unhealthy food

While television and online advertising of unhealthy food to children forms a large part of the evidence base for the impact of advertising on children, the effect of other types of marketing has also been studied. Product packaging that includes the presence of cartoon characters has been found to influence taste perceptions in young children. In one US study of children aged 4 to 6 years they believed a product with a cartoon character tasted better than the same food in a package without the character.³³ In another US study, children aged 3 to 5 years tasted identical pairs of food and drink but felt they tasted better if they were in McDonald’s branded packaging.³⁴

Collectible toys are another means of altering children’s food preferences, and research has shown they can be used to encourage healthy choices. A US study of children aged 3 to 5 years found a collectible toy increased preference for unhealthy meals, but had the same effect when paired with healthy meals.³⁵ A similar Australian study of 5 to 9-year-olds found children were significantly more likely to select a healthier meal over an unhealthy meal when only the healthier meals were accompanied by a collectible toy.³⁶

Sports sponsorship also has an effect on children’s preferences. An Australian study of 10 to 14-year-olds involved in local sport found high awareness of their clubs’ sponsors, particularly when they were food and beverage companies.³⁷ A majority of children in the study thought their club’s food and beverage sponsors were 'cool', and liked to return the favour to these sponsors by buying their products. Many of the children had received a voucher from a food or beverage company to reward good sport performance (86%), or a sporting certificate displaying a food or beverage company logo (76%).