With most Victorian teenagers having a smartphone, young people are being bombarded with unhealthy food and drink advertising.
As they grow, the messages kids are exposed to set the foundation for how they think about healthy eating and living. Unhealthy food and drink advertising has a powerful impact on children, shaping the foods that they want, ask for and eat, undermining efforts of families, health professionals and teachers to set our kids up for a healthy future.
The ultra-processed foods promoted by food companies on social media put teens at increased risk of serious diseases, including 13 types of cancer later in life. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
To understand more about the effects of this advertising, Cancer Council Victoria’s Centre for Behaviour Research in Cancer explored the impact that unhealthy food marketing on the popular social media platform, Instagram, has on teenagers’ attitudes and preferences towards unhealthy food and drink brands.
“Over 900 Australian teenagers aged 13 to 17 participated in an online study where they were shown fake Instagram feeds with embedded ads for popular fast-food or sugary drink brands, or ads for non-food brands (control ads),” said Principal Research Fellow, Associate Professor Helen Dixon.
“We found that when teens engage with branded unhealthy food and drink marketing posts (i.e. ‘like,’ ‘comment’ or ‘share’) they see on social media, they view advertised junk food products and peers who consume them more positively.”
On the other hand, when teenagers ignored the ads for unhealthy foods and drinks that popped up on their social media, they were less likely to be interested in those junk food brands.
“Teenagers are unethically targeted with unhealthy food and drink advertising on popular social media platforms such as Instagram. Our findings show how the interactive nature of social media, combined with the use of appealing youth-targeted marketing strategies, such as endorsement by popular ‘influencers’, create a highly persuasive marketing cocktail. Industry marketers use social media to blur the distinction between advertising and social activity when targeting our children,” continued A/Prof. Helen Dixon.
This research has been made possible through the generous support of Peter Griffin AM and Terry Swann who believe strongly in the transformative impact of epidemiological and behavioural research in changing behaviours to improve health outcomes for the community.
“Cancer Council Victoria houses the world leading Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer which has led world leading research into the correlation between smoking and lung cancer, resulting in the world’s first Quit campaign. It’s cutting-edge research into the contributing factors of the current childhood obesity epidemic that is now a central focus which we believe needs to be supported,” said Peter Griffin AM.
Pictured: Terry Swan, A/Prof. Dixon and Peter Griffin AM
The processed food industry spends millions of dollars every year targeting Australian children and teens with marketing for unhealthy food in every aspect of their lives. With your support, we are working to change this.
“Our children deserve to grow up in communities that support their health and wellbeing. But this is impossible when the processed food industry surrounds our children with targeted marketing, powerfully shaping what they ask for, want and prefer,” said Jane Martin, Executive Manager of Food for Health Alliance.
To tackle this issue, Cancer Council Victoria supports the Food for Health Alliance’s Brands Off Our Kids! campaign which advocates for comprehensive government regulation to protect children.
“Our campaign is urging the government to put the health of the community above the profits of the processed food industry and introduce measures to protect our children from the powerful impact of unhealthy food and drink marketing,” said Jane.
The government is considering options to regulate unhealthy food marketing in Australia, so it is important to demonstrate broad support for action to protect our children’s future health.
Housed at Cancer Council Victoria, Food for Health Alliance is a partnership between Cancer Council Victoria, VicHealth and Deakin University that advocates for laws and policies to improve our food environment.
Every child and young person should be able to play, learn and live in a world that supports and promotes their health and wellbeing.
A/Prof. Dixon says there’s a perception that teenagers are more immune to junk food advertising than younger children, but this is not the case. We also need to be mindful of the high reach and influential impact of junk food marketing on this age group.
“That’s why it is crucial that strong regulations are in place to protect all children, including teenagers from pervasive digital marketing of unhealthy food and drink brands and products, and keep brands off our kids,” she concluded.
Your voice can help make a change.
We believe in the power of working together to improve our food environment and help protect children and teens from unethical marketing practices.
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