Testing the Effectiveness of Public Service Ads in Persuading Target Audiences to Reduce Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

Local health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are now developing media campaigns to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption, which has been found to play a significant role in childhood obesity. The aim of this research project is to test the efficacy of existing beverage-related media messages for youth and parents in More

Examining the Nutritional Content and Youth-Focused Marketing of Fortified Drinks to Strengthen Public Policies

With the link between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and childhood obesity well established, effective strategies to reduce consumption of these beverages among children are needed. The objective of this research is to determine whether the nutritional content of fortified beverages and fruit drinks warrants their inclusion or exclusion from public policies designed to reduce the marketing More

The New Age of Food Marketing: How Companies are Targeting and Luring Our Kids – and What Advocates Can Do About It

This report provides a snapshot of five categories of marketing tactics used by fast food, snack food, and soft drink companies to target children and adolescents. These categories include: 1) creating immersive environments; 2) infiltrating social networks; 3) location-based and mobile marketing; 4) collecting personal data; and 5) studying and triggering the subconscious. Descriptions of More

Issue Brief: Reining in Pester Power Food and Beverage Marketing

This legal issue brief focuses on “pester power” food and beverage marketing, in which young children are targeted by marketers in an effort to get them to encourage their parents to purchase products for them. In the brief, pester power marketing is analyzed under existing state consumer protection laws and two primary legal theories: (1) More

Major Findings from 50-State Survey of State Consumer Protection Law to Limit Junk Food Marketing to Children

This report summarizes findings from a 50-state survey of state consumer protection laws to identify key statutes that hold promise to protect children when they are the targets of marketing for unhealthy food and beverage marketing. The authors apply a consumer protection legal framework by dividing children’s food and beverage marketing into three categories: a) More

Industry Progress to Market a Healthful Diet to American Children and Adolescents

In a 2005 report, Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity, an IOM expert committee concluded that prevailing food and beverage marketing practices did not support a healthful diet and provided recommendations to guide diverse stakeholders to promote a healthful diet to children and adolescents. This paper reviews the available evidence between December More

Analyzing the Legal Authority of State Attorneys General to Limit Unfair and Deceptive Digital Food Marketing to Children

Food marketing that employs computers and mobile devices to engage young people has exploded in recent years and can directly target and geo-locate children, often without parental knowledge. State Attorneys General (AGs) have authority to protect the public from Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices (UDAP). Digital marketing that bypasses parents and is designed to More

Using New Eye-Tracking Technologies to Assess the Effects of Varied Nutrition Labels on the Selection and Purchase of Healthful Foods

This study assesses front-of-package nutrition labeling using novel technology (eye tracking) in a population at risk for obesity (urban, lower-income, racial and ethnic minority). Eye tracking allows objective comparison of use of monochromatic Nutrition Keys labels (soon to be added to food packages by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, but currently unevaluated) and color-coded traffic light More