Social media promotes the advertising of unhealthy foods, study finds. Adolescents and young adults are priority targets.
The agri-food industry has understood what social networks can do for it. For junk food, these are particularly effective marketing tools. Because behind the screens, there are thousands of adolescents and young adults who flock to Facebook or Twitter. And fatty, salty and sweet products, they love them.
Offensive strategies
In a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers sifted through the Facebook pages of 27 highly regarded food and beverage brands – Subway, Coca-Cola, and Maltesers. They analyzed their marketing techniques, their messages and the profile of the people registered on these pages.
As a result, the brands that count the most unhealthy foods are also the ones that have the most offensive strategies on social media – and especially towards young people. More present than the others, they flood their audience with messages of all kinds … with a certain effectiveness.
The team of researchers observed that it was very easy for these companies to create a link with their audience. Facebook is the ideal interface for offering gifts, promotions and events, or for communicating about “positive” projects (partnership with charities, funding for humanitarian actions, etc.). Indeed, each ad of this kind has had the effect of increasing the number of Facebook “fans”. A godsend for these companies.
Especially since, according to the study, Facebook users who follow the pages of these companies tend to share this content with their friends. And this trend is on the rise.
Reorienting campaigns against obesity
“By using the interactive and social aspect of Facebook, brands that market calorie and low-nutrient foods capitalize on the networks of people who follow their pages. They enhance the scope and relevance of their promotional messages, ”note the researchers.
For the authors of the study, these results should serve to reorient the policy of the fight against obesity, which focuses on advertising junk food on American television, during the hours when children watch it. “This too restrictive measure misses out on thousands of online advertisements targeting adolescents.”
Facebook and other social networks, however, have a role to play in the fight against junk food. Last month, a large study showed that relying on these websites significantly improved the effectiveness of obesity reduction programs. Social networks still need to take this path.
.
