Junk food campaigns targeting children through digital marketing

The often-invisible nature of digital marketing makes it challenging for researchers to identify and track precisely what brands are doing, particularly when marketing is rolled out behind company walls and delivered to individual devices such as phones. 

A new study led by nutritionist Christine Driessen of Deakin University in Australia claims to have found a way in. Through analysing industry reports submitted to a marketing awards programme, the research reveals that children and adolescents are being targeted by sophisticated marketing techniques for unhealthy foods and drinks. 

“Multinational food and beverage companies are using advanced digital marketing techniques, including artificial intelligence and new technologies, to shape young people’s food behaviours and influence their diets worldwide,” says Driessen, a PhD candidate at the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition at Deakin University’s Institute for Health Transformation. 

“Strong government-led action is urgently needed to safeguard all young people from the invasive reach and powerful influence of digital marketing techniques employed by the food and beverage industry,” she believes. 

Researchers studied marketing campaigns from various countries 

The researchers assessed 111 marketing industry ‘best in practice’ case studies via the World Advertising Research Centre (Warc), including marketing campaigns from Australia, India, China, Europe and the USA. Brands were typically owned by multinational companies and included soft drink, chocolate, savoury snack and milk drink products. 

“The fact that these approaches are being made explicit in award-winning campaigns suggests such marketing technologies are working well for food and drink companies,” Driessen observes. 

“We need comprehensive government-led and mandatory policies that work across the entire digital ecosystem to protect children and families against the reality of unhealthy food and drink marketing.”  

The new study is published with open access in the academic journal Appetite, with co-authors from Deakin University, Monash University (also in Australia) and the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 

You can find out more about the research, titled ‘Contemporary digital marketing techniques used in unhealthy food campaigns targeting young people’, here.