Funder: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Healthy Eating Research

The research is clear: advertising prompts children and youth to consume foods and beverages they should avoid. So far, most of the policy debate has focused on TV commercials targeted at young children. However, marketing now extends far beyond the confines of television and even the Internet, into an expanding and ubiquitous digital media culture. The proliferation of media in children's lives has created a new "marketing and media ecosystem" that encompasses mobile devices, social networks, instant messaging, videogames, and virtual, three-dimensional worlds. With our colleaghues Jeff Chester at the Center for Digital Democracy, Kathryn Montgomery and Sonya Grier, both at American University, we are examining how these new marketing practices are fundamentally transforming how food and beverage companies do business with young people in the 21st century.

Case studies
We are examining specific campaigns and developing case studies describing new digital and interactive food and beverage marketing practices, primarily targeting children and adolescents, especially African American and Latino youth, who suffer most from diseases associated with poor diets. The case studies will provide a comprehensive analysis of how new platforms, technologies, advertising techniques, and market research practices are being deployed by food and beverage companies.

Conceptual model
Digital techniques are quickly evoloving and unprecendentedly immersive. To assess the best ways to understand these new media effects, we are convening a group of scholars to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the impact of the digital practices on food and beverage consumption amoung children and youth and a reseaech agenda to guide future studies of that impact.

Policy analysis
We are assessing the case studies against the backdrop of the current government and industry initiatives aimed at regulating interactive marketing and developing policy recommendations for addressing digital food and beverage marketing targeted at young people.

 

 

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