The Wild Wild West of Food Marketing (Part 1)

A generation ago, food marketing to kids was found mostly in two places: Saturday morning cartoons and the cereal aisle. No more. Children are now targeted throughout the grocery store, on billboards, product placements and, most dangerously, on digital media. Jane and Liz talk to Jennifer Harris of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health and Charlene Elliot of University of Calgary to understand how the problem has exploded, in particular for tweens and teens, who are now believed to be even more vulnerable to advertising messages than young children. 

Further Resources:

• More than a Nuisance: Implications of Food Marketing for Public Health Efforts to Curb Childhood Obesity (Annual Review of Public Health)

• Food marketing to teenagers: Examining the power and platforms of food and beverage marketing in Canada (Appetite)

• Tracking teen food marketing: Participatory research to examine persuasive power and platforms of exposure (Appetite)