Food Marketing and the Preschool Child

• Project start date: 1 January 2011
• Project status: Completed
• Project type: Nutrition
• Discipline: Food marketing
• Principal researcher/s: Prof Patrick Wall, University College Dublin
• Collaborator/s: Prof Barbara Livingstone, University of Ulster, Dr Moira Dean, Queen’s University Belfast

Research objective

• To establish the extent of food marketing aimed at preschool children
• To investigate the nature of food marketing aimed at preschool children
• To examine the effects of food marketing on preschool children’s behaviour
• To review the literature on international regulations with regard to food marketing to children and identify current ROI and NI (UK) regulations in this area

Outputs

Research report

• Title: Food marketing to preschool children
• Publication date: 5 April 2015
• Summary: This report aims to investigate the exposure of young children to advertising of unhealthy foods and to examine its influence on family food purchases, children's eating behaviour and body weight.
• Findings:
  • Children continue to be exposed to large amounts of food advertising. Recent research indicates that promotions targeting children have increased and online advertising targeting children, though under-researched, appears to have become a highly effective marketing technique.
  • Food marketers have adopted multifaceted and highly effective approaches to food marketing, using techniques such as product placement, sales promotions, websites, celebrity promotions, promotional characters and packaging to capture the attention of their target market.
  • Television continues to be the primary vehicle through which food companies market their products to children.
  • The types of foods marketed to children are typically nutritionally poor with high levels of fat, sugar and/or salt.
  • Existing research supports the findings of this review that food marketing continues to affect children’s diet in terms of food consumption, preferences and purchase requests.
  • Since 2004, there has been an increase in the use of non-traditional forms of marketing promotion such as sponsorship, product placement and digital marketing (e.g. social networking, websites, advergaming, etc.)
  • Current regulations do not fully address the integrated nature of marketing to children across media platforms (e.g. digital) utilising a variety of promotional techniques.
  • Measurable regulatory progress has been made with regards the marketing of foods to children in ROI and NI (UK) through statutory, non-statutory and self-regulation.
  • Legal loopholes remain whereby food companies can continue to market foods to children using product placement and digital marketing techniques.

   

• Recommendations:
  • The majority of research into child targeted marketing focuses on television advertising. Given the growth of online marketing to children and its use of innovative strategies coupled with children’s difficulty in distinguishing internet advertising further research is warranted.
  • Children are young as two years of age are able to recognise branded logos. Given the prevalence of branded packaging along with the use of licensed cartoon characters on cross promotions in supermarkets further research is advised in relation to in-store marketing techniques.
  • Research following the introduction of a ban on advertising high fat, sugar and salt foods by Boyland et al found that in spite of regulations, children were exposed to more advertising for unhealthy foods compared to healthy foods. As of September 2013, regulations on TV advertising of such foods to children were introduced in ROI. It would be relevant to compare the amount of high fat, sugar and salt food and beverages targeting children pre and post regulation in ROI.
  • Given the move by advertisers to the online environment for engaging children it would be pertinent for government and non-government public health bodies to advocate for regulation in this domain.

  You can download a summary report below.

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