Focus Area: Food Marketing

Centering equity in FDA regulation: Front-of-package food label effects in Latino and limited English proficiency populations

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This project aims to determine the front-of-package label design that is most effective at helping Latino consumers identify and choose healthier products. The project also aims to explore whether the benefits of front-of-package design differ by English proficiency. Participants will include 4,000 US adults of parental age (18-55 years old) who identify as Latino. Participants More

Effects of front-of-package non-sugar sweetener disclosures on parents’ perceptions and selection of sweetened food and beverage products for their children

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The project aims to use an online randomized experiment to 1) evaluate the impact of front-of-package (FOP) non-sugar sweetener (NSS) disclosures on a) parents’ selection of unsweetened products and b) parents’ selection of products with NSS and use focus group discussions to 2) examine parents’ understanding and perceptions of NSS and FOP NSS disclosures, 3) More

Effects of a front-of-package disclosure on accuracy in assessing children’s drink ingredients: two randomised controlled experiments with US caregivers of young children

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This study aimed to test the effects of a standardized front-of-package (FOP) disclosure statement (indicating added sugar, non-nutritive sweetener (NNS) and juice content) on accuracy in assessing ingredients and perceived healthfulness of children’s drinks. In two randomized controlled experiments, the same participants (six hundred and forty-eight U.S. caregivers of young children ages 1-5 years) viewed More

Toddler milk: a scoping review of research on consumption, perceptions, and marketing practices

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Toddler milk is an ultra-processed beverage consisting primarily of powdered milk, caloric sweeteners, and vegetable oil. Pediatric health authorities do not support the use of toddler milk, and emerging evidence suggests that toddler-milk marketing practices may mislead consumers. However, studies have not synthesized the extent of toddler-milk marketing practices or how these practices affect parents’ More

Reducing Student Exposure to Digital Food and Beverage Marketing: Policy and Practice Recommendations

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Digital marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children and adolescents is pervasive, highly effective, undermines healthy eating, and contributes to health inequities. Expanded use of electronic devices and remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the urgency for policy interventions to limit digital food marketing in schools and on school-issued devices. The US More

Reducing Student Exposure to Digital Food and Beverage Marketing

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Digital marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children and adolescents is pervasive and undermines healthy eating. During the COVID-19 pandemic, students’ time spent online for both recreation and school using educational technology doubled from 3.8 to 7.7 hours per day for 12- to13-year-olds, and racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities widened with children of color More

Food Marketing Practices of Major Online Grocery Retailers in the United States, 2019-2020

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Food marketing influences consumers’ preferences for and selection of marketed products. Although a substantial body of research has described food-marketing practices in brick-and-mortar stores, no research has examined food marketing in online grocery retail despite its growing importance as a source of food-at-home purchases. This study aimed to develop and apply a coding instrument to More

Child-Directed Marketing, Health Claims, and Nutrients in Popular Beverages

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Fruit drinks are a major source of added sugar in children’s diets. This study describes the associations between front-of-package child-directed marketing (i.e., sports, fantasy, or child-directed imagery; child-directed text) and (1) health-related claims and (2) nutrient content of fruit drinks, 100% juices, and flavored waters. Beverage purchase data from a national sample of 1,048 households More

Kid Influencer Marketing: Gaps in Current Policies and Research

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Most food advertisements that children see are for unhealthy foods and beverages. Paying “influencers”—online celebrities with large social media fan bases—to endorse or promote products on their social media accounts is a relatively new tool that companies use to market their products. Engaging kid influencers has the added bonus of reaching younger audiences. Kids may More

Assessing the Public Health Impacts of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative

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The Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) is a voluntary industry initiative in which companies commit to featuring only foods meeting specific nutrition criteria in advertising directed primarily to children under age 12. New criteria that were announced in 2018 and went into effect in 2020 strengthened the nutrition standards and changed the criteria More