This report describes and provides examples of the types of digital marketing research utilized by the food and beverage industry and the potential effects it has on the health of children and adolescents. Researchers found that food and beverage industry, together with the companies they contract, are conducting three major types of research: 1) testing and deploying new marketing platforms, 2) creating new research methods to probe consumers’ responses to marketing, and 3) developing new means to assess the impact of new digital research on marketers’ profits. Researchers also found that industry puts this research into action, specifically through its efforts to target communities of color and youth.
Published: May 2011
ID #: 66966
Publisher: Center for Digital Democracy and Berkeley Media Studies Group
Authors: Chester J, Cheyne A, Dorfman L
Keywords: Digital marketing, Food advertising, Media, Social media
Focus Area: Food Marketing
Resource Type: Report
Related Research
November 2009
Studying Food and Marketing Industry Research Behind Digital Media Marketing to Children and Adolescents
As digital media become ever more present in children’s lives, public health researchers and policy-makers need to understand how the new marketing ecosystem infiltrates and influences consumers. Yet specialized, commercially-sponsored digital marketing research remains obscured from public view because much of it occurs outside the academy. This study will make highly accessible and visible an MoreNovember 2023
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
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 MoreMay 2023