New Report Critical of Digital Food Marketing to Children
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and the Berkeley Media Studies Group have published a report criticizing top cereal manufacturers for allegedly targeting children with “sophisticated online marketing techniques.” Andrew Cheyne, et al., “Marketing Sugary Cereals to Children in the Digital Age: A Content Analysis of 17 Child-Targeted Websites,” Journal of Health Communication, February 2013. Focusing on 17 branded cereal websites between October 2008 and March 2009, the study’s authors reported that these sites employed a mix of techniques such as “advergames, videos, site registration, and viral marketing” to engage children in “lengthier and more sophisticated” interactions “than are possible with traditional, passive media such as television advertisements or product packaging.”
In particular, the study relied on Internet traffic data to allegedly suggest that children spent more time on sites with higher levels of immersion, that is, “the most and most sophisticated techniques.” These high-immersion sites reportedly brought children back for an average of three visits, with such visits on average including more than 100 web pages per visitor and lasting longer than 20 minutes. Although the study’s authors noted that these results were tentative insofar as they could only obtain traffic data for nine of the 17 sample sites, they nevertheless criticized cereal manufacturers for attempting to “exploit children’s susceptibility to advertising by almost exclusively promoting high-sugar cereals using deeply engaging techniques.”
“Future research should assess to what extent the engagement techniques on child-directed cereal websites affect children’s brand awareness and preferences,” concludes the report. “This work should evaluate children’s knowledge of these techniques’ promotional intent, and their food preferences and requests after exposure to digital food and beverage marketing… This is especially important given that the cereal industry touts compliance with its own voluntary nutrition guidelines regulating advertising to children.” See Rudd Center Press Release, February 21, 2013.
