How Food Marketing on Instagram Shapes Adolescents’ Food Preferences: Online Randomized Trial

Background: Worldwide obesity rates have prompted 16 countries to enact policies to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing, but few policies address online advertising practices or protect adolescents from being targeted. Given adolescents spend so much time online, it is critical to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of medical Internet research 2021-10, Vol.23 (10), p.e28689-e28689
Main Authors: Bragg, Marie, Lutfeali, Samina, Greene, Tenay, Osterman, Jessica, Dalton, Madeline
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Advertisements
Advertising
African Americans
Beverages
Childhood obesity
Food
Food marketing
Healthy food
Likeability
Logos
Marketing
Obesity
Online advertising
Original Paper
Persuasion
Social media
Social networks
Social norms
Teenagers
Text messaging
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Summary:Background: Worldwide obesity rates have prompted 16 countries to enact policies to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing, but few policies address online advertising practices or protect adolescents from being targeted. Given adolescents spend so much time online, it is critical to understand how persuasive Instagram food advertisements (ads) are compared with traditional food ads. To strengthen online food marketing policies, more evidence is needed on whether social media ads are more persuasive than other types of ads in shaping adolescents’ preferences. Objective: This study examined whether adolescents could identify food companies’ Instagram posts as ads, and the extent to which Instagram versus traditional food ads shape adolescents’ preferences. Methods: In Part 1, participants aged 13-17 years (N=832) viewed 8 pairs of ads and were asked to identify which ads originated from Instagram. One ad in each pair was selected from traditional sources (eg, print; online banner ad), and the other ad was selected from Instagram, but we removed the Instagram frame—which includes the logo, comments, and “likes.” In Part 2, participants were randomized to rate food ads that ostensibly originated from (1) Instagram (ie, we photoshopped the Instagram frame onto ads); or (2) traditional sources. Unbeknownst to participants, half of the ads in their condition originated from Instagram and half originated from traditional sources. Results: In Part 1, adolescents performed worse than chance when asked to identify Instagram ads (P
ISSN:1438-8871
1439-4456
1438-8871
DOI:10.2196/28689