Using the internet to market food to children

Nutrition Research Newsletter, Oct, 2006

Research has shown that dietary intake patterns of American children do not meet national dietary recommendations and are in need of improvement. Additionally, during the past 25 years, obesity rates have increased two-to-threefold among children and adolescents. There are multiple factors that influence eating behaviors of children and adolescents. Several marketing channels are utilized to reach youth and foster brand-building and influence food-product purchase behavior, including television advertising, in-school marketing, youth-targeted promotions, and online media.

Online media play an increasingly substantial role in the lives of American youth. Advertisers and marketers have begun to target children with a variety of new online interactive advertising and marketing techniques. Nearly 100% of the major companies that advertise and market to children have created their own Web sites, designed as "branded environments" for children, offering entertaining, animated, and interactive areas.

An investigation was performed to conduct a systematic content analysis of a sample of food and beverage brand Web sites and assess marketing techniques and advertising strategies aimed at children and adolescents present on these sites. For the content analyses, the top five brands in each of eight food and beverage categories, 40 brands in total, were selected based on annual sales data from Brandweek magazine's annual Superbrands report. The eight food and beverage categories selected for the content analysis included: beverages, soft drinks; beverages, other; fast food; ready-to-eat cereal; cookies; crackers; slated snacks; and candy. These categories were selected because they are popular among children and adolescents and represent foods that are frequently marked to youth.

The content of each of the 40 Web sites was downloaded between September 2004 and October 2004. An Internet Web site content analysis rating form was developed by the investigators, pretested, revised, and used to rate each of the sites on Web site characteristics and marketing techniques. The 13-page form consisted of demographic and Web site characteristics, marketing strategies, and advertising techniques present on the Web site, features of "advergaming" (games in which the advertised product is part of the game), features of designated children's areas (area of the Web site specially created for children), and nutrition information present on the Web site.

The results show a wide variety of Internet marketing techniques and advertising strategies targeting children and adolescents. "Advergaming" was present on 63% of the Web sites. Half or more of the sites used cartoon characters (50%) or spokescharacters (55%), or had a specially designated children's area (58%) with a direct link from the home page.

The investigators feel that these results show that there is a need to develop safeguards for children on internet food sites. Food and nutrition professionals need to advocate for responsible marketing techniques that will support the health of children.

K. Weber, M. Story, L. Hamack. Internet food marketing strategies aimed at children and adolescents: A content analysis of food and beverage brand web sites. J Am Diet Assoc; 106:1463-1466 (September 2006). [Correspondence: Mary Story, PhD, RD, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, 1300 S 2nd St, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454. E-mail: story@epi.umn.edu].