Tag Archive for: junkfood marketing

Covid 19 coronavirus: Junk food companies accused of ‘Covid-washing’ during lockdown

NZ Herald 
20 of the biggest junk and fast food brands in New Zealand have been accused of “Covid-washing” by pushing their products on the back of the nation’s lockdown according to a study from the University of Auckland. The study analyzed nearly 1400 social media posts and found about 27 per cent of the posts related to Covid-19 themes, of which more than a third linked a brand with community spirit. The study’s lead author, Dr Sarah Gerritsen, said Covid-washing portrayed a company as empathetic and contributing in a meaningful way to the pandemic response.”When, in reality, it was just another strategy to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health.” Read more

Stopping ‘buy one get one free’ deals in supermarkets could help tackle obesity, experts say

iNews.co.uk
Dr. Jean Adams, a senior lecturer working at Cambridge University’s Centre for Diet and Activity Research agrees this could “make an impact”. “Less healthy food on different offers are more likely to be on promotion than healthier foods. We also know that promotions work.” There is “no magic bullet,” she makes clear. “We have to think of it as a complicated problem that needs many solutions. And restricting price promotions on less healthy foods could certainly be a sensible part of a wider plan.” Read the article here

 

Obesity researchers say Coke and Pepsi should stop targeting communities of color with ads

Fast Company 

Black children and teens see more than twice as many sugary drink ads (256 and 331 ads per year) as their white counterparts, according to a new report by the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Sugary drinks are also heavily advertised on Spanish-language TV, particularly Coke and Gatorade; Powerade devotes a third of its TV ad dollars to Spanish-language TV. (Only 13% of Americans speak Spanish at home.) You can read the article here

You can read the study here

Extra dip? Why advertising junk food must be strictly regulated

News 24 (South Africa) 

Evidence from South Africa’s tobacco control efforts indicates that exposure to junk foods through marketing can be reduced with legislation. Today smoking rates and exposure to tobacco through advertising and sponsorships have decreased significantly.   Similar to smoking, excess consumption of heavily marketed, highly processed, unhealthy food is associated with non-communicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The use of legislation to create food environments that enable healthy diets is globally recognized as one of the approaches to reducing non-communicable diseases.  Read more here

 

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Global child health study calls on Canada to act

Guelph Mercury

Canadian child health advocate, Zulfi Bhutta of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, is among a team of global experts urging “a radical rethink” of how a warming planet, aggressive advertising and economic inequities pose an “immediate threat” to the health and well-being of young people worldwide. A report launched Wednesday by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and The Lancet concludes children face urgent peril from ecological degradation, climate change and aggressive marketing tactics that push heavily processed fast food, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco. Read the article

Seventy percent of teens surveyed engaged with food and beverage brands on social media in 2017

Medical XPress

Seventy percent of teens surveyed report engaging with food and beverage brands on social media and 35 percent engaged with at least five brands, according to a new study from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity published in the journal Appetite. The study found that 93 percent of the brands that teens reported engaging with on social media were fast food, unhealthy snack foods, candy, and sugary drinks. Read the article here

No Decline in Junk-Food Advertising on Children’s Television, According to New CSPI Analysis

Center for Science in the Public Interest

A new analysis of 72 hours of children’s television programming in 2018 found that junk-food marketing has not decreased since 2012. The vast majority of the food and beverage advertisements captured were for unhealthy products. The lack of progress comes despite the implementation in 2013 of uniform nutrition standards by an industry self-regulatory group.

How children get hooked on sugary drinks

New York Times

Nearly two-thirds of the $2.2 billion in beverages marketed to children in 2018 contained added sweeteners, according to a report released last week by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut. The report found that the packaging and marketing of these products often leave parents confused.   Read the New York Times article here.

 

 

76% of sports sponsorships tied to junk food

CNN 

Excerpts:
76% of sports sponsorships tied to junk food, study says The study, published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, reveals that 76% of food products shown in ads promoting a sports organization sponsorship are unhealthy and that 52.4% of beverages shown in sports sponsorship ads are sugar-sweetened.

Cheering on your favorite sports team and snacking on junk food often go hand in hand in the United States, but a new study sheds light on just how intertwined sports and unhealthy foods really are.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, reveals that 76% of food products shown in ads promoting a sports organization sponsorship are unhealthy and that 52.4% of beverages shown in sports sponsorship ads are sugar-sweetened. Read article here…
 

This is why child obesity rates have soared

The Conversation

Obesity is an issue with no geographical, ethnicity, age or gender boundaries. Rather, obesity is the inevitable consequence of an “obesogenic” environment that we have constructed for ourselves. If we surround children with foods that are high in fat and sugar and restrict their opportunities to run around, they are at risk of developing obesity… On one side of the equation, our food supply is dominated by energy dense, nutrient poor foods that are available 24 hours a day. In the United States alone, companies spend $1.79 billion annually to market unhealthy food to children, compared with only $280 million on healthy foods. In Canada over 90 per cent of food and beverage product ads viewed by children and youth online  are for unhealthy food products. Read full article…