Child-oriented marketing techniques in snack food packages in Guatemala

Abstract

BackgroundChildhood overweight in Guatemala is now becoming a public health concern. Child-oriented marketing contributes to increase children’s food preference, purchase and consumption. This study sought to assess the availability of child-oriented snack foods sold in school kiosks and convenience stores near public schools in Guatemala, to identify the marketing techniques used in child-oriented snack food packages and to classify the snacks as “healthy” or “less-healthy”.MethodsWe purchased all child-oriented snacks found in stores inside and within 200 square meters from four schools in an urban community. Snacks were classified as child-oriented if the package had any promotional characters, premium offers, children′s television/movie tie-ins, sports references, or the word “child”. We used a checklist to assess child-oriented references and price. Snacks were classified as “healthy” or “less-healthy” according to the UK standards for the Nutritional Profiling Model.ResultsWe analyzed 106 packages found in 55 stores. The most commonly used technique was promotional characters (92.5%) of which 32.7% were brand-specific characters. Premium offers were found in 34% of packages and were mostly collectibles (50%). Most marketing techniques were located on the front and covered nearly 25% of the package surface. Median (interquartile range) price was US$ 0.19 (0.25). Nutrition labels were found in 91 (86%) packages and 41% had a nutrition related health claim. Most snacks (97.1%) were classified as “less-healthy”.ConclusionIn Guatemala, the food industry targets children through several marketing techniques promoting inexpensive and unhealthy snacks in the school environment. Evidence-based policies restricting the use of promotional characters in unhealthy snack food packages need to be explored as a contributing strategy to control the obesity epidemic.

Exploring mechanisms of food insecurity in indigenous agricultural communities in Guatemala: a mixed methods study

“…This price parity resulted in a situation whereby processed foods remain highly available and affordable, even while fresher, more nutritious foods were more expensive or unavailable. These findings are consistent with other literature showing the rapid incursion of processed foods marketing in urban, non-indigenous Guatemalan populations [17,18]. They are also consistent with the global scholarly literature, which has repeatedly demonstrated that the commoditization of diets decreases dietary diversity in both rural and urban settings [35,36].…”

“…Similarly, the implementation of small-plot household gardens could improve dietary diversity and serve as bridge to more large-scale transitions in cropping practices [32,33]. Finally, exploration of strategies to improve the availability of fresh foods in local corner stores with packaging and pricing that makes them competitive to processed foods is essential to improving dietary quality [17,18].…”

“…In our own recent work, we have shown how these effects extend even to communities with high rates of local land ownership and food production [16]. At the same time, this endemic food insecurity coexists with a rapid increase in the country-wide availability and market penetration of highly-processed or pre-packaged snack foods [17,18]. In a recent study we conducted in an indigenous Maya farming village, Xejuyu' , 1 less than 3 % of children under five years of age met World Health Organization standards for dietary diversity and meal frequency [15,16], subjective perceptions of food insecurity were common, and the majority of households regularly consumed processed and pre-packaged snack foods.…”

Child-directed and nutrition-focused marketing cues on food packaging: links to nutritional content

“…At the outset, it is important to note that the codes for child marketing and nutrition were developed as cumulative measures of both types of marketing approaches, as the presence of more of these cues indicates a more concerted effort to highlight these particular attributes. Development for the childtargeted marketing code was based on previous research (20,(30)(31)(32)(33) . Each package was assessed for the presence of each of the following eight characteristics: (i) child-friendly imagery (e.g.…”

Package design and nutritional profile of foods targeted at children in supermarkets in Montevideo, Uruguay

“…Package design plays a major role in attracting attention and influencing purchase intent, and provides food companies the last chance to persuade consumers to buy the product at the point of sale 23 . Foods targeted at children are usually marketed using unconventional flavor and colors, cartoon characters, photos of celebrities, household names, merchandising tie-ins, and direct references to fun and play on the packages 22,24,25,26 . These marketing strategies have been reported to encourage children to think that products are tastier, healthier, funnier, and more appropriate for them, increasing their liking and willingness to consume 27,28 .…”