Making sense of adolescent-targeted social media food marketing: A qualitative study of expert views on key definitions, priorities and challenges

Daphne L M van der Bend; Tammie Jakstas; Ellen van Kleef; Vanessa A Shrewsbury; Tamara Bucher

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2021.105691

Making sense of adolescent-targeted social media food marketing: A qualitative study of expert views on key definitions, priorities and challenges

Appetite. 2022 Jan 1:168:105691. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105691. Epub 2021 Sep 10.

Authors

Daphne L M van der Bend¹, Tammie Jakstas², Ellen van Kleef³, Vanessa A Shrewsbury², Tamara Bucher⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW, 2308, Newcastle, Australia; Department of Social Sciences, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Wageningen University & Research, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN, Wageningen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: daphne.vanderbend@wur.nl.
² School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW, 2308, Newcastle, Australia.
³ Department of Social Sciences, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Wageningen University & Research, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
⁴ School of Environmental and Life Sciences, College of Engineering, Science and Environment, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW, 2308, Newcastle, Australia.

PMID: 34509544
DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105691

Abstract

Traditional food marketing stimulates adolescents' consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. These dietary behaviours may track into adulthood and lead to weight gain, obesity and related non-communicable diseases. While social media use in adolescents has proliferated, little is known about the content of food marketing within these platforms, and how this impacts adolescents' dietary behaviours. This paper aimed to obtain expert insights on factors involved in the association between social media food marketing (SMFM) and adolescent dietary behaviours, and to explore their views on key priorities, challenges and strategies for future SMFM research and policies. One-on-one semi-structured interviews (n = 17) were conducted with experts from Western Europe, Australia and North America, in the fields of public health (policy), nutrition science, social media marketing, adolescent medicine, clinical psychology, behavioural sciences, communication, food industry, social influencing, and social marketing. The experts' collective responses identified that the line between food content posted by social media users and food companies is blurred. Adolescents' processing of SMFM may be mostly implicit, involving social comparison, emotional engagement, and attaching symbolic meanings to foods. Mediating factors and adolescent-specific and SMFM-specific moderating factors potentially influencing adolescents' response to SMFM were summarized in a Social Ecological model. Experts agreed that there is limited scientific evidence on adolescent-targeted SMFM and there are no strict regulations in place to protect adolescents from unhealthy SMFM, while adolescents are active social media users who are cognitively vulnerable to implicit marketing tactics. Adolescent-targeted SMFM should be controlled by encouraging healthy food marketing or limiting junk food marketing. Also, prioritizing both quantitative research on SMFM exposure and its impact, and qualitative research to obtain adolescents' perspectives, is crucial to advocate for regulatory changes regarding adolescent-targeted SMFM content.

Keywords: Adolescent health; Eating behaviours; Food marketing; Obesity; Social media.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Food
Humans
Marketing
Qualitative Research
Social Marketing
Social Media*