Despite expert recommendations, U.S. parents often serve sugar-sweetened children’s drinks, including sweetened fruit-flavored drinks and toddler milks, to young children. This qualitative research explored parents’ understanding of common marketing tactics used to promote these drinks and whether they mislead parents to believe the drinks are healthy and/or necessary for children. We conducted nine focus groups in Washington, DC and Hartford, CT with parents of children (9–36 months) of diverse race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (N = 50). Participants expressed widespread misperceptions about sweetened fruit-flavored drinks and toddler milks, including perceived healthfulness and benefits for children and confusion between sweetened and unsweetened drink categories (sweetened fruit-flavored drinks vs. juice, toddler milk vs. infant formula). They confirmed that common marketing strategies contributed to misperceptions, including front-of-package claims and marketing messages that imply benefits for children and/or hide problematic ingredients; cross-branding and product extensions from trusted brands; side-by-side shelf placement at retailers; lower price than healthier products; and targeted marketing to children and parents. Findings support the need for policies to address potentially misleading marketing of sweetened fruit-flavored drinks and toddler milks and revealed opportunities to reduce parents’ provision of these drinks through counter-marketing campaigns communicated via trusted sources.
Published: February 2022
ID #: 76374
Journal: Maternal & Child Nutrition
Authors: Fleming‐Milici F, Phaneuf L, Harris JL
Focus Areas: Beverages, Early Childhood
States: Connecticut, District of Columbia
Keywords: Front-of-package labeling, Sugar-sweetened beverages, Water
Resource Type: Journal Article
Age Groups: Pregnant women, infants and toddlers (ages 0 to 2), Preschool-age children (ages 3 to 5)
Related Research
February 2022
The Impact of Pictorial Health Warnings on Purchases of Sugary Drinks for Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial
This study aimed to examine the impact of pictorial warnings on parents’ purchases of sugary drinks for their children in a naturalistic store laboratory. Parents of children ages 2 to 12 (n = 325, 25% identifying as Black, 20% Hispanic) completed a shopping task in a naturalistic store laboratory in North Carolina. Participants were randomly MoreJanuary 2022
Front-of-package claims & imagery on fruit-flavored drinks and exposure by household demographics
Young children regularly consume sugary fruit drinks, in part because parents may falsely believe they are healthful due to front-of-package (FOP) claims and imagery. The goal of this study was to assess: 1) the prevalence of FOP claims/imagery on fruit-flavored beverages purchased by U.S. households with 0-5-year-olds, and 2) proportional differences in beverages purchased with MoreDecember 2021