Focus Area: Food Marketing

Looking Beyond the Marketing Claims of New Beverages: Health Risks of Consuming Sports Drinks, Energy Drinks, Fortified Waters and Other Flavored Beverages

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Consumption of several new categories of ‘fortified’ sugary beverages has increased significantly in recent years. Energy drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, flavored waters, and sweetened teas and coffees are heavily marketed and have become popular with children and adolescents as well as adults. This report describes the results of the first comprehensive, scientific study of More

Food Marketing: Using Toys to Market Children’s Meals

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Nearly $2 billion is spent yearly by U.S. food and beverage companies to market products to children, with the majority of expenditures promoting less healthful foods and drinks. For restaurants, including toys with children’s meals is the leading form of food marketing directed at children. The practice of child-directed marketing by pairing toys with children’s More

Impact of San Francisco’s Toy Ordinance on Restaurants and Children’s Food Purchases, 2011-2012

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In December 2011, San Francisco enacted the first citywide ordinance–the Healthy Food Incentives Ordinance– prohibiting restaurants in the city from giving away free toys or other incentives with children’s meals or with foods and beverages not meeting minimal nutritional criteria. This paper examines the impact of the ordinance on restaurant response (e.g., toy-distribution practices, changes More

Shopper Response to Front-of-Package Nutrition Labeling Programs: Potential Consumer and Retail Store Benefits

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Many front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labeling systems have been developed by food retailers and manufactures to help consumers identify more healthful options at the point of purchase. This paper examines how two alternative FOP nutrition labeling systems – reductive and evaluative – affect shoppers’ product evaluations, choices, and retailer evaluations. Reductive FOP systems extract a reduced More

Lessons Learned from Small Store Programs to Increase Healthy Food Access

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This paper presents the experiences and lessons learned from small food store interventions in four U.S. cities – Baltimore, Md.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Burlington, N.C.; and Philadelphia, Pa. Experiences from these four communities indicate that small store interventions face a variety of challenges that impact feasibility, acceptability, and long-term success. Particularly challenging issues included: understanding and More