Start Date: November 2010

ID #: 68240

Principal Investigator: Lori Dorfman, DrPH, MPH

Organization: Public Health Institute

Funding Round: Round 5

See more related research

Share


The sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) industry is increasingly using corporate social responsibility campaigns—particularly cause marketing appeals via social media—to reach young people. The purpose of this study is to assess how the current cause marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns of the SSB industry compare to the strategies articulated and practiced by the tobacco industry. The project includes content analysis of the SSB industry’s social media and CSR campaigns, public relations materials issued to support them, financial and regulatory statements detailing the campaigns, and news and trade press coverage of these actions. Investigators will examine: tobacco industry documents that discuss the industry’s CSR strategies; the SSB and tobacco industry’s corporate and shareholders’ reports and their respective regulatory filings; current CSR campaigns using social media from SSB industry leaders Coca-Cola and Pepsi; trade press coverage of these campaigns; and a nationally representative sample of the news coverage pertaining to the SSB industry’s social media cause marketing and CSR campaigns. The main outcome of this research will be: 1) a comprehensive case study of recent SSB industry CSR and cause marketing campaigns; 2) a systematic review of the nature and extent of linkages between the SSB and the tobacco industry’s CSR strategies and campaigns; and 3) a comprehensive description of how food and beverage social media marketing works in contemporary efforts to target young people.

Related Research

June 2012

Soda and Tobacco Industry Corporate Social Responsibility Campaigns: How Do They Compare?

This article examines prominent cases from corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts by soda industry leaders PepsiCo and Coca-Cola and compares them with tobacco industry CSR campaigns. Researchers found that major soda manufacturers have recently employed elaborate, expensive, multinational CSR campaigns. The campaigns echo the tobacco industry’s use of CSR to focus responsibility on consumers rather More

January 2025

Healthy Beverage Consumption in School-Age Children and Adolescents: Recommendations from Key National Health and Nutrition Organizations

Given the importance of beverage consumption throughout the lifespan and the need for comprehensive and consistent evidence-based recommendations, Healthy Eating Research (HER) convened an expert panel representing four key national health and nutrition organizations to develop recommendations for beverage consumption consistent with a healthy diet for children and adolescents ages 5 to 18 years. The More

December 2024

Estimating Young Children’s Exposure to Food and Beverage Marketing on Mobile Devices

Food and beverage marketing drives poor diet quality and obesity risk among children. However, it is unknown how much young children are exposed to digital food and beverage marketing on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. The objective of this study was to estimate how frequently young children, who are particularly vulnerable to advertising, view More