Media Releases

“Marketing is just washing over this country like a tidal wave, and we’re trying to give people swimming lessons.”

—Kelly D. Brownell, UConn Rudd Center

Coalition praises new bill to stop food and beverage marketing to kids

Bill C-252 undergoing second reading debate

Ottawa, ON – May 6, 2022 – The Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition commends Patricia Lattanzio, Member of Parliament for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, as she moves Bill C-252 to second reading today in the House of Commons. Private Member’s Bill C-252 aims to prohibit the marketing of food and beverages high in sugar, saturated fats or sodium to children under 13 years of age. Read more…

Sugary Drinks : Over-consumed, unnecessary and harmful

June 7, 2021 – Coalition Poids, The Childhood Obesity Foundation and Heart & Stroke call on all levels of government to follow the lead of Newfoundland and Labrador and introduce a sugary drinks levy that can be reinvested in prevention as a promising strategy to bring greater health and economic benefits. Read more…

Pediatricians urge Senate to pass children’s health bill: Bill S-228 will die if not passed by end of session

June 17, 2019 – The Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition is calling attention to a communication to Senators in The Hill Times urging the Senate to pass Bill S-228 before the end of the current parliamentary session. Known as the Child Health Protection Act, the bill would restrict the marketing of foods and beverages high in sugar, salt and saturated fat to children 12 and under. The communication, an urgent plea to senators, was placed by the Canadian Paediatric Society (which is an endorsing organization of the Coalition) and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada. Read more…

Canadians served opportunity to have their say about healthy eating

July 30, 2017 -Heart & Stroke welcomes the recent announcement by Health Canada to launch two public consultations as part of its Healthy Eating Strategy. These consultations will allow Canadians to have input around two public policy areas that can significantly support them to be able to make healthy food choices for themselves and their families. Read more… 

16 and Under Campaign

May 23, 2017 – To rally support for federal legislation intended to restrict food and beverage marketing to all children in Canada, Heart & Stroke’s next step in its fight against marketing to kids uses a new (and entirely fictional) advertising agency called “16 and Under” that exclusively creates ads targeting kids. Read more…

The food and beverage industry is marketing our children and youth to death

February 1, 2017  –  New research reveals advertising restrictions urgently needed to protect kids and support parents. Read more…

Celebrity Chef and Health Experts Stir Up Excitement Around Childhood Obesity

October 7, 2016  –  Jamie Oliver and Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition identify areas for immediate action. Read more…

Health coalition gives proposed legislation to protect children a gold star

September 28, 2016  – The Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition applauds Senator Nancy Greene Raine for introducing legislation prohibiting food and beverage marketing to children. Read more…

Heart and Stroke Foundation applauds Senate committee recommendations

March 1, 2016  – The Heart and Stroke Foundation praises the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology for its comprehensive report on obesity and important nutrition policy recommendations that will have a real impact on the health of Canadians. Read more…

Health organizations tell food industry: pick on someone your own age

February 24, 2016 – Co-led by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Childhood Obesity Foundation, the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition says the time has come to protect children and to support parents to make healthy decisions for their families. Read more…

85% of Canadian parents want government to place limits on advertising unhealthy foods and beverages to children

May 9, 2013  – Approximately 20 health organizations have joined together in light of Canada Health Day 2013 to support of a policy statement calling for a restriction on marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children. Read more…

Other Stop M2K News

February 2015 – Digital Junk: Marketing of Food and Beverages on Facebook

Research Question

What is the amount, reach and nature of energy dense, nutrient poor food on Facebook?

Methods

Content analysis of the marketing techniques used by the 27 most popular food and beverages brand Facebook pages in Australia. Content was coded across 19 marketing categories and collected data from an average of 3.65 years of activity per page.

Results

  • ŸMajority of posts across all the pages were of photographs
  • On average, page administrators made a total of 18 original posts during the 1-month period, of which 13 (72%) were classified as photographs.
  • All page posts attracted likes, shares, and comments from page members.
  • Monster Energy had the highest total number of likes for its posts across the 1-month period with 1,281,868 total likes, and Subway had the highest average number of likes per post with 23,569 likes.
  • Given that a significant portion of Facebook users log in daily, it is unsurprising that popular pages have high levels of activity.
  • Consumers not only willingly engage with brands, they also create free word-of-mouth content that marketers have minimal control over
  • Users require very little incentive to openly interact with unhealthy food brands
  • Increasing the visibility of users on social media among their peers—or fellow consumers—is a distinctive social media marketing tactic
  • Very high popularity of the sugar-sweetened soda and energy drink pages

Discussion

The above results have public health practice implications. Young adults appear to be a highly desirable target population for unhealthy food marketing, and limited research, resources, and policy action have been directed at this age group. If people are engaging with Facebook content because it makes them feel good, it may mean that certain modes of health promotion messages that are highly effective in other forms of media will not work on social media.

Click here to download the PDF version of the webinar slides

January 2015 – The Effectiveness of Food and Beverage Media Literacy

What is media literacy?

The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a variety forms. In the literature, media Literacy and advertising literacy are used interchangeably.

Research Question and Methods

Research Question: What is the effectiveness of media literacy programs targeted to children to protect them from the harms of unhealthy food and beverage advertising?

Methods: The research focused on studies that explored advertising on less health food and beverages targeted at children 17 years old or younger. Five secondary and nine primary research articles were reviewed.

Results demonstrated that:

1) There are many unsubstantiated assumptions within the media literacy literature including:

Ÿ Individuals who have lower understanding of media are more susceptible to its effects.

Ÿ Food and beverage media literacy is the same as other forms of media literacy (e.g. understanding violence on TV).

2) There are different ways of measuring the “effectiveness” of media literacy interventions:

Ÿ By measuring ability to identity and understand advertising or, media literacy related outcomes.

Ÿ By measuring behavioural outcomes –this measure is more important if we want to use media literacy to protect children from the influence of advertising.

In every study that was reviewed, media literacy interventions were more successful at improving media literacy related outcomes than in actually changing purchasing behaviours or attitudes.

Conclusion

Media literacy may be useful is helping children understand marketing, but there is little evidence to suggest that media literacy impacts food purchasing behaviors or preferences or that media literacy will protect children from the influence of food and beverage marketing.

Results support the Dietitians of Canada position paper on advertising food and beverages to children, which states that media literacy, “may not be a strong option for attenuating the effects of food advertising directed to children”.

What are the health effects of added sugars in children’s diets?

  • Ÿ Though sugar is not shown to be associated with hyperactivity or behavior problems in children, it is associated with increased energy intake (possibly leading to weight gain) and dental caries when oral care is inadequate.
  • There has been a lot of research in adults that examined the health effects of added sugar but there needs to be more done with children.
  • Within the research, there are discrepancies in how “added sugars” are defined.
  • There needs to be more primary research with a consistent definition of “sugar” that can determine causality.
  • There were several studies that were funded by the Sugar Bureau of the UK but stated that the Sugar Bureau did not provide direction for the research.

What are the health effects of added salts in children’s diets?

  • Ÿ A high salt intake is not associated with hydration status (because children compensate by increasing fluid intake accordingly) but may be associated with blood pressure, sugar sweetened beverage intake, weight status and calcium excretion
  • Ÿ Within the research examined, there are discrepancies in how sodium is measured. Some studies measure sodium by dietary intake and others by ordinary excretion.
  • Ÿ In some areas the research is strong enough to make clear statements, but there is conflicting info we need to be careful.

Thank you to our speaker

Mary Anne Smith is research consultant for Dietitians of Canada. She is a registered dietitian and recently finished a PhD in the field of food policy at the University of Guelph. Her research interests include knowledge translation, food policy, food safety, and food security and she has worked in private practice and as a consulting dietitian for government and non-governmental organizations.

Click here to download a PDF version of the webinar slides

November 2014 – How the Exposure to Advertising in Childhood Can Create Biased Product Evaluations That Persist into Adulthood

University students eat a lot of presweetened cereal, even though those ads are targeted to very young children. Might there be some long-lasting effects from the ads they saw as children? How might that happen?

A pilot study, 4 studies and a follow-up study demonstrated the following results:

Pilot Study

ŸExposure to advertisements in early childhood can lead to biases in favour of that product

Study 1

ŸPositive affect toward childhood advertising icons is a casual mechanism of this bias

Study 2

ŸBiases caused by advertising are above and beyond biases caused by memories of consumptions

Study 3

ŸBiases are resilient, but can be corrected when ability and motivation to correct are enhanced

ŸPolarized positive affect is a motivational deterrent to correct bias

Study 4

ŸBiases are not limited to the original product, and can transfer to brand extensions

ŸBiases are resilient, but can be corrected when motivation to correct is high and ability to correct is enhanced

ŸPolarized positive affect is a motivational deterrent to correct bias

Follow-up Study

ŸDistinctions between early childhood advertising and entertainment are blurred.

Implications of the Research

  • Ÿ The effects of advertising to young children persist for years, even decades, into adulthood.
  • Biases created by early childhood advertising have the potential to adversely affect consumer health and well-being.
  • Policies banning licensed characters accomplish little, as company-created mascots have strong associations with entertainment (versus advertising).

Limitations of the Research

  • ŸSmall sample size
  • This is the first study of its kind and needs to be replicated

Discussion

  • ŸTo a surprise (or not) industry was far ahead of the science. Industry most likely has conducted very similar research.
  • This study was done with university students, and it is speculated by the researcher that there would be similar results with different education and/or income levels

Thank you to our speaker

Dr. Paul M. Connell is Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University. His research interests include how children are affected by marketing actions and long-term effects of marketing activities directed toward children. In particular, he is interested in how marketing efforts might have a negative impact on health and well-being, and whether there are interventions that can help mitigate potential harms. His research has been published in journals such as Appetite, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.

Click here to download the PDF version of the webinar slides