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[fruitlessfridays]

Access to supermarkets and fruit and vegetable consumption were examined in a cross-sectional study in the Barnsley area of South Yorkshire in England. The study was based on the hypothesis that “food deserts”, or areas of lower-income where access to affordable healthy food is limited, contribute...

[dmnutr351-blog]

Food Marketing in the Digital Age

“The next few years will see a dramatic expansion of digital food and beverage marketing.  The food industry is at the forefront of research and innovation in the interactive marketing arena, working with dozens of ad agencies, marketing firms, and high-tech specialists to design campaigns that take advantage of young people’s engagement with social networks, interactive games, mobile phones, online videos, and virtual worlds.  Major brands have significantly increased their spending for online display advertising, exhibiting double- and in some cases triple-digit growth

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This quote was taken from a research article “Food Marketing in the Digital Age.”  The article explains that large food marketing programs such as Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Dr. Pepper, Kellogg’s, General Mills, McDonalds, and so on, are investing more money into the “digital age.”  This includes things such as social media, interactive gaming experiences, television, and multiple cyber platforms.  The research in this article also supports that the marketing will be targeted towards the youth.  There will also be a significant increase in marketing to the minority cultures.  It is believed that by 2050 the minority, African American and Hispanic demographics, will ultimately become the majority.  For this reason, large food companies plan to instill a brand loyalty in the youth so that it may carry on into adulthood.

Due to the increase in marketing directed towards the youth, majority and minority alike, research in this article focused on food marketing and its impact on young people’s behaviors.   It depicts a conceptual framework for understanding digital marketing and its role in promoting unhealthy food and beverages to children.   One element to the framework is ubiquitous connectivity.  The youth is constantly connected to technology.  This has given marketers an easy platform to promote their product.  Technology has also given marketers a way to enable the youth in creating and distributing brand-related content, including advertisements, products, and packaging for their favorite products.  These plus many other aspects of the framework presented by this article target the vulnerability of adolescents.   This age group is at a large risk for obesity and other related diseases, but this age group has not received the same level of scholarly attention that has been focused on younger children, particularly with regard to food marketing.  Due to the lack of research there is no true understanding on the impact that digital marketing is having on the youth, especially adolescents, therefore there is no understanding the impact it could have on their futures.

http://www.centerfordigitaldemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Digital_Food_Mktg_Conceptual_Model%20Report.pdf

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Commercial Food Marketing with Public Health Campaigns

It can be agreed that commercial food marketing has been a reckless force shaping our food choice behaviors.  The use of icons, promotions, and low prices has drawn in our attention for decades. Adults and children alike have been molded by these forms of marketing and based their dietary intake off of them.  In some situations marketing has promoted positive and healthy food choices.  The majority of the time this is not true.  Regardless of positive or not, it can be agreed that food marketers are successful promoters of their product.  A study performed in 2012 was directed to empirically identify food marketing success factors that, using the social marketing approach, could help improve public health campaigns to promote healthy eating.

From the study it was determined that there were six categories that were contributing to the success of food marketing. These categories were: data and knowledge, emotions, endorsement, media, community, and why and how.  The study also gave several other categories that had a substantial impact on the success in food marketing.  It is argued that the factors nutritional evidence, trend awareness, vertical endorsement, simple naturalness, and common values are of particular importance in the communication of health with regard to food.

Public health campaigns for healthier eating differ from commercial food marketing campaigns in a number of ares.  As seen previously, commercial food marketers, including fast food, have specific categories they focus on which gains the attention and business of the consumer.  The negative aspect is that a lot of the food being promoted us not health orientated.  The conclusion of the study, in terms of applying the results to public health campaigns, is as follows.  The public sector's food and health-related campaigns and interventions may benefit from adapting and applying the identified key success factors that result in commercial success. Public campaigns could be benefited by more intensive research on consumer’s new societal trends. Public campaigns could also be strengthened by adding a stronger emotional appeal, especially by emphasizing the desire for simplicity and naturalness, which is satisfied by healthy food and healthy eating. Promising approaches in public campaigns might be those that appeal to common values, and allow the experience of being part of a movement or group, or re-connecting to the local community.  Healthy eating recommendations should also be simple, clear and achievable, and should stress short-term benefits alongside the long-term benefit of good health.

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Food Marketing Doesn't Have to Make Us Fat

Cornell University has put its Food and Brand Lab to the task of answering a solid question.  Does food marketing need to make us fat?  In the article attached the findings to this question were recorded.  The article describes the main goals that are sought after by companies while marketing food.  They set their sights on capturing the attention of the consumer with “tastier, more convenient, and less expensive food.”  The sad part is that this is what so many people look for in food.  The negative part of this is that to achieve these aspects unhealthy ingredients have to be used.  Companies pump sugars into low grade meat, sell us trans fats and plastic cheese, and feed us high fructose corn syrup.  They use all of these things to achieve a taste, convenience, and price point that fits into the desires of the consumer.  Food companies, majority of the time, are just giving out what people want, and the people buy it confidently, yet complain when suffering from obesity. 

It was determined at Cornell that this marketing strategy can be applied to healthy food options as well.  The value of a consumer’s dollar does not have to stop at the dollar menu.  By offering quantity discounts or bonus packs with vegetables and fruits a consumer can feel their dollar going further and be more likely to purchase it.  Another step at following the fast food marketing style with healthy foods is re-branding.  Many unhealthy food options are marketed with attractive icons, funny cartoons, or sports figures.  Using this same idea with healthy food would influence the purchasing of healthier food options.

Many other methods used to market unhealthy food can also be used to market healthy options.  Consumers enjoy complex taste.  This can be achieved by combining things in forms such as a fruit salad or even trail mix.  Another method that could also be used is the packaging.  Using more attractive packaging can encourage consumers to grab the healthy choice rather than the fatty meat slab.  There are many unexplored territories in terms of healthy food marketing.  According to Cornell University food marketer s can apply their methods to healthy food and be just as successful.  

http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/outreach/fat.html

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Global Obesity Pandemic

Very often, when the word obesity is brought up, the image of an obese American sitting at a McDonalds comes to mind.  This way of life has swept the U.S. Nation but at the same time it was sweeping other countries as well.  The rise of the obesity epidemic seemed to begin almost concurrently in most high-income countries in the 1970s and 1980s.  About a decade after that, middle and low-income countries began to struggle with obesity.  By 2008, a study found that 1.46 billion adults globally were overweight and 502 million adults were obese.  It was also found that 170 million children, ages 18 and younger, globally were classified as overweight or obese.  This rise in obesity throughout the world has been linked to a common food system in majority of these countries.  The increased supply of cheap, palatable, energy-dense foods; improved distribution systems to make food much more accessible and convenient; and more persuasive and pervasive food marketing. 

The idea of fast, cheap, and easy that has taken off in high-income countries has now worked its way into middle and low-income countries.  Time is money, and money is a necessity.  Therefore people are willing to give up health in their daily diets to achieve more time to make money.  Taking time to prepare a beneficial meal no longer looks as appealing as running to McDonalds and getting that burger that tastes so good.  It has become a burden to take time out of the day in order to prepare meals that benefits health.  This way of life has caught on and marketing companies are using it to their advantage.

There are forms of cheap and fast food in every country.  Not only does it appeal to so many people financially and time wise, but it also tastes good.  Marketers have spent billions of dollars getting out the word that their food is convenient.  They have also focused on capturing the attention of children which results in the parents and the children eating at the restaurant.  While obesity has a relationship to marketing, a lot of the driving forces for obesity are the lifestyles that have been adopted by so many.

[sadieseidel]

Supplements are something that our culture has been exposed to heavily. They are not only something we have been exposed to, but something that most of us have taken at one point or another. They seem like a good alternative to eating a variety of foods when we are busy or if we don’t know what...

[dmnutr351-blog]

I have taken my fair share of supplements.  I use to drink shakes instead of eat breakfast because its easy and fast.  I never thought about the impact eating whole foods has on the immune system in comparison to supplements. 

[mayormchealthy]

This article describes the relationship between 26 wealthy countries and the amount of fast food.

The study shows that wealthy countries with little to no restrictions on fast food have higher obesity rates than countries with regulations. The United States has a fast food density of 7.52...

[dmnutr351-blog]

It amazes me that even with the financial ability to purchase nutritionally substantial food, people still choose to eat fast food.   That includes myself as well.  I think alot of it has to do with time.  Not only do we have money to wasted, but often we feel as if we don't have time to cook a meal that is more beneficial to our health.

[dmnutr351-blog]

CDC and IMO Research Marketing and Childhood Obesity

The relationship between food marketing and childhood obesity has been a topic that’s been contemplated for over a decade.   In 2004 Congress stepped in and recruited the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to gather hard facts about the situation.  The CDC’s objective was to study the marketing of foods directly towards children and its possible influence on obesity.  This resulted in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) opening a new study, Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity.

IMO says “food marketing, intentionally targets children who are too young to distinguish advertising from truth and induces them to eat high-calorie, low-nutrient (but highly profitable) “junk” foods; companies succeed so well in this effort that business-as-usual cannot be allowed to continue.”

Since 1970 the obesity rate among children has more than doubled.  As a result of this increase, Type II diabetes has become prevalent in pediatric settings.  This is a consequence of the drastic decline in the nutritional values of children’s diets. Today, in a child’s diet, it is common to see 30% of their consumed calories to come from sweets, salty snacks, and fast food.  On top of that, it is common to see 10% of the consumed calories to come from soft drinks.  Pediatricians say it is not unusual for overweight children to consume 1200 to 2000 calories per day from soft drinks alone.  These percentages have more than doubled since 1980, along with the noticeable increase of advertisement designed for children.

With the introduction of internet, more children TV programs, and video games the ability for advertisement companies to reach children has become extremely easy.   According to the CDC “Since 1994, U.S. companies have introduced about 600 new children's food products; half of them have been candies or chewing gums, and another fourth are other types of sweets or salty snacks. Only one fourth are more healthful items, such as baby foods, bread products, and bottled waters.”  Children in American spend, on average, $30 billion on foods just like these.  Marketing companies have adapted and learned how advertise to these children and obtain their money.

The CDC and IMO have performed research to identify that the relationship between food marketing and childhood obesity is prevalent.  Exposing children to advertisement of this nature only increases the possibility of them suffering from obesity.  This in turn produces economic costs that are steadily increasing, and illnesses that are becoming more and more common.

[fruitlessfridays]

One of the studies I came across when doing my research in to food deserts was “Rural Food Deserts: Low-income Perspectives on Food Access in Minnesota and Iowa”. The researchers conducted focus groups to study how food deserts in rural, low-income communities impact food choices within the

I can see how influential the environment can be.  I have been in multiple places, Minnesota and Iowa included. that only have a gas station and a Mcdonalds.  The people in those places often have no other choice.

[dmnutr351-blog]

U.S. Senate Fights Food Marketing and Obesity

In the past 3 years government has begun to fight food marketing and its impact on the drastic increase of childhood obesity.  Multiple articles have been published about numerous senators proposing bills, acts, policies, and also writing letters to entertainment destinations, such as Nickelodeon and Disney, requesting an end to unhealthy advertisement.   These efforts for changed have all been based on extensive research done by the government.

One of the many states that are facing problems with food marketing and obesity is Illinois.  Senator Mattie Hunter says “Illinois faces a $3.4 billion health problem: 63.7 percent of adults are overweight, 27.7 percent are obese and it costs the state $3.4 billion per year to treat obesity-related health issues.”  These numbers are found to be influenced by the marketing scheme used in low- income areas of the state.  The marketing in low-income areas promote sugary beverages with lowered prices, making the beverages an attractive option for shoppers on a budget.  To fight this attractiveness of unhealthy beverages Hunter has proposed the HEAL Act.  Hunter’s Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Act aims to reduce obesity within the state by using a penny-per-ounce excise tax to invest an estimated $600 million for prevention and health care.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin as well as Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) are also fighting marketing and its effect on obesity.  This group of senators has sent a letter to the Nickelodeon Head Quarters.  The letter requests that Nickelodeon no longer allows the advertisement of unhealthy food on their network.   A section of the letter read “While there are many factors that contribute to childhood obesity, food marketing plays an important role.” The senators also wrote “Nickelodeon is in a key position to help safeguard the health and well-being of our kids, and your decisions on what products are permitted to be advertised through your network have an impact on our children’s diets and long-term health prospects.”  One year prior to this letter Disney removed any marketing of foods that did not fall into their nutrition standards.  It is hoped that Nickelodeon would do the same.

Both articles spoke strongly against the marketing of unhealthy food to children.  Research shows that the eating habits adopted by a person in their youth are often carried on the eating habits in adult hood.  To reduce our country’s increase in obesity, these habits need to be confronted at their origin, childhood.  Children are drastically influenced by programming.  Reducing unhealthy food marketing can help fight the risks of obesity in the future.