Marketing to Youth in the Digital Age: The Promotion of Unhealthy Products and Health Promoting Behaviours on Social Media

Abstract

The near-ubiquitous use of social media among adolescents and young adults creates opportunities for both corporate brands and health promotion agencies to target and engage with young audiences in unprecedented ways. Traditional media is known to have both a positive and negative influence on youth health behaviours, but the impact of social media is less well understood. This paper first summarises current evidence around adolescents' exposure to the promotion and marketing of unhealthy products such as energy dense and nutrient poor food and beverages, alcohol, and tobacco on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. We explore emerging evidence about the extent of exposure to marketing of these harmful products through social media platforms and potential impacts of exposure on adolescent health. Secondly, we present examples of health-promoting social media campaigns aimed at youth, with the purpose of describing innovative campaigns and highlighting lessons learned for creating effective social media interventions. Finally, we suggest implications for policy and practice, and identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for future research.

Fast food, beverage, and snack brands on social media in the United States: An examination of marketing techniques utilized in 2000 brand posts

“…This study contributes to the literature on food, beverage, and snack marketing in several ways. Other social media research studies have included a smaller subset of brands, fewer social media platforms, or provided a narrative review of evidence or broad commentaries on public health concerns related to social media advertising . Our findings are the first to evaluate growth of brands' social media accounts over a 9‐year period and capture the variety of advertising practices companies used on five platforms over a 1‐year period of time.…”

“…Other social media research studies have included a smaller subset of brands, 23,26,36 fewer social media platforms, 26,36 or provided a narrative review of evidence or broad commentaries on public health concerns related to social media advertising. 23,25,27,28 Our findings are the first to evaluate growth of brands' social media accounts over a 9-year period and capture the variety of advertising practices companies used on five platforms over a 1-year period of time. Our data, therefore, present the most comprehensive snapshot of social media food advertising to date and can provide a roadmap for future studies aiming to examine the effects of novel promotional techniques that are unique to social media food advertising (eg, using interactive features in posts that depict adolescents).…”

“It’s Just Addictive People That Make Addictive Videos”: Children’s Understanding of and Attitudes towards Influencer Marketing of Food and Beverages by YouTube Video Bloggers

“…They do so by gathering viewers' ideas, which "might be better than the ones they (the brand/influencer) had", so that the brand can create better future campaigns. Indeed, advertisements that are targeted, such as those tailored to viewers' preferences, are found to be particularly impactful [81,82]. In addition, many recognised that viewers would need to purchase Nutella in order to share these images and recipe ideas and so sales of Nutella would increase.…”

Trends and Correlates of Hookah Use Among High School Students in North Carolina

“…[31] Emerging evidence shows that exposure to marketing of the unhealthy products through social media platforms may impact adolescent health behaviors. [32] Given that 92% U.S. adolescents report going online daily, with 71% using Facebook,[33] the current study expands on previously identified correlates by examining social media engagement and exposure to online tobacco advertising and their associations with hookah use in a representative sample of high school students in North Carolina. We also examined associations between hookah use and youth exposure to anti-tobacco messages, along with school and community tobacco prevention activities.…”