“We’re Part of the Solution”: Evolution of the Food and Beverage Industry’s Framing of Obesity Concerns Between 2000 and 2012

Abstract

We investigated how industry claim-makers countered concerns about obesity and other nutrition-related diseases in newspaper coverage from 2000, the year before the US Surgeon General's Call to Action on obesity, through 2012. We found that the food and beverage industry evolved in its response. The defense arguments were made by trade associations, industry-funded nonprofit groups, and individual companies representing the packaged food industry, restaurants, and the nonalcoholic beverage industry. Individual companies used the news primarily to promote voluntary self-regulation, whereas trade associations and industry-supported nonprofit groups directly attacked potential government regulations. There was, however, a shift away from framing obesity as a personal issue toward an overall message that the food and beverage industry wants to be "part of the solution" to the public health crisis.

The shift in framing of food and beverage product reformulation in the United States from 1980 to 2015

“…However, given the emphasis the industry places on the difficulties and length of time needed to undertake reformulation -in this analysis and others (Webster et al 2011; National Heart Foundation of Australia 2012) -it is unlikely that they would have taken such voluntary reformulation actions if the threat of policy change were not already present in the early 2000s. Furthermore, these findings align with previous research showing that the food and beverage industry has shifted their framing of obesity overtime to encompass being 'part of the solution' (Nixon et al 2015). Moreover, although we recognize it is not possible to directly compare the tobacco and food industries, previous research on the tobacco industry mirrors and supports the results of this analysis.…”

“…From this smaller sample of articles (n=292), 15 were randomly selected to be read in-depth and qualitatively analyzed (open coding) by one researcher (CS) to develop the initial coding framework specific to this study. This initial coding frame was also informed by previous studies assessing food and beverage policy framing, which have found that the industry positions themselves as "part of the solution" to obesity and NCDs, and that nutrition is frequently framed as a matter of individual responsibility (Nixon et al 2015;Kersh 2009;Ken 2014;Jou et al 2014). A second researcher (LN) tested the validity of this initial coding framework by applying it to a further 8 randomly selected articles, and the framework was refined accordingly.…”

Message framing in the context of the national menu-labelling policy: a comparison of public health and private industry interests

“…Most private sector interests focused on communicating values and consistently depicted themselves as a ‘vulnerable’ collection of small, family-run businesses that supported healthy and informed consumers. Consistent with prior content analyses ( 12 , 36 ) , many private sector restaurants congratulated themselves on advancing public health through current policies and many advocated for voluntary self-regulation related to menu labelling. This is consistent with a recent content analysis of the food and beverage industry’s framing of obesity in the news, which identified a shift in recent years away from framing obesity as an issue of personal responsibility and towards the message that the food and beverage industry wants to be ‘part of the solution’ ( 12 ) .…”

“…Consistent with prior content analyses ( 12 , 36 ) , many private sector restaurants congratulated themselves on advancing public health through current policies and many advocated for voluntary self-regulation related to menu labelling. This is consistent with a recent content analysis of the food and beverage industry’s framing of obesity in the news, which identified a shift in recent years away from framing obesity as an issue of personal responsibility and towards the message that the food and beverage industry wants to be ‘part of the solution’ ( 12 ) . Public health should be wary of industry claims of self-regulation, as research suggests that these self-regulatory programmes have not been very impactful ( 38 , 39 ) .…”

“…Much research on the framing of obesity has focused on analysis of news and media accounts ( 7 , 12 – 17 ) . A growing body of research has documented a ‘public health’ frame for obesity, typically focused on systemic forces that contribute to obesity (e.g.…”