Choice, Motives, and Mixed Messages: A Qualitative Photo-Based Inquiry of Parents’ Perceptions of Food and Beverage Marketing to Children in Sport and Recreation Facilities

Abstract

Unhealthy food and beverage availability and sponsorship undermine healthy food practices in sport and recreation. We conducted a focused ethnography with reflexive photo-interviewing to examine parents’ awareness, reactions, and experiences of food and beverage marketing in and around their children’s physical activity in public sport and recreation facilities. Eleven parents took photos of what they thought their facility was ‘saying about food and eating’. Photos guided semi-structured interviews on the ‘4Ps’ of marketing (product, pricing, placement, promotion). Thematic analysis was conducted by holistic coding followed by in vivo, versus, and value coding. Photo-taking increased parents’ awareness of food marketing in facilities. Reactions to food and beverage marketing were positive or negative depending on parents’ perspectives of healthy food availability (choice), marketers’ motives, and mixed messages within the facility. Parents experienced their children requesting ‘junk’ food at the facility leading to parents actively attempting to reduce the frequency of these requests. Healthy eating promotion in sport and recreation facilities was misaligned with the foods and beverages available which contributed to parents’ distrust of social marketing initiatives. Critically evaluating the alignment of commercial and social marketing in recreation and sport may help inform effective healthy eating interventions that are accepted and supported by parents.

Adolescents’ experiences with the food selection at the sports arena in the area of Oslo, Norway: a focus group study

“…Thus, sports arenas may be important to promote health and stimulate positive healthy behaviours (2)(3)(4)(5)(6) . However, sports arenas are often characterised by the unhealthy food on offer, which includes a wide range of energy-dense, nutrient-poor, processed items that are quick to prepare and inexpensive to provide (2,(7)(8)(9)(10)(11) . Studies from Switzerland and the USA have revealed how convenience foods that are high in calories and sugar are readily available in youth sports settings (12,13) .…”