MARKETING ETHICS

Aussie alcohol and fast-food industries accused of ‘sly’ tactics

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2024

Marketing, PR and advertising sectors are using devious tactics, says health expert who co-authored two research papers.

Health experts in Australia are calling for government action to protect consumers from the influence of advertising that promotes alcohol and fast food. This after new research has highlighted what critics say are “sly” tactics to promote their products.

Two papers published in the peer-reviewed Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health showcase tactics that include generating news coverage promoting unhealthy foods, to co-opting not-for-profit organisations to push-back against government marketing reforms.

In one study, researchers analysed the way that fast-food restaurants use public relations tactics to generate positive news coverage of their products and enhance their reputation.

The first study found that three of the biggest fast-food chains in Australia issued at least 52 press releases over a 12-month period. Just over a quarter of those releases (27%) profiled what the researchers say are unhealthy food products, while another quarter related to corporate social responsibility claims.

Photo: Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels

“These media releases usually translated into overwhelmingly positive coverage (93%) for fast-food brands across Australian media outlets, generating at least 86 print and online news stories – most relating to unhealthy food products. Media coverage was found across 31 Australian news outlets,” the research team states.

The second study examined how the fast food, alcohol and advertising industries influenced a Queensland state government proposal to restrict advertising of unhealthy food and alcohol on publicly owned assets.

It found that those opposed to the reforms used a range of tactics to influence the proposal, including directly meeting with the state Minister for Health and co-opting five charities into supporting their position. The proposal was subsequently altered and is yet to be adopted.

Using ‘devious’ tactics to protect their profits

Professor Kathryn Backholer, Vice President for Development of the Public Health Association of Australia, and Co-Director of the Global Center for Preventative Health and Nutrition at Deakin University in Geelong, was an author on both research papers.

She believes that the unhealthy food and alcohol industries, alongside the advertising industry, are using devious tactics to protect their profits, at the expense of Australians’ health.

“Australians are trying to make the best food choices for the health of their families, but this research shows how companies are undermining this by ensuring that junk food marketing infiltrates every aspect of our lives,” Backholer says.

“The advertising industry is also using sneaky tactics to ensure that government doesn’t introduce reforms that protect children from unhealthy food and alcohol advertising.”

Dr James Kite, from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, was a co-author on the fast-food public relations study. He believes that many consumers may not realise that generating news coverage is a tactic that is deliberately being used by the food industry to boost profits.

“Fast-food chains are using masked marketing tactics like media releases to get around our usual scepticism towards advertising. It’s covert and sly – media outlets need to be proactive in protecting us from being bombarded with unhealthy food advertising at every turn,” he notes.

Kite adds that “Australian media outlets are often reliant on advertising dollars from unhealthy industries and so may be more open to their promotional media releases”.

You can find out more about the two studies here and here.