Examining the Relationship between Youth-Targeted Food Marketing Expenditures and the Demographics of Social Media Followers

Background: To determine how many adolescents follow food/beverage brands on Instagram and Twitter, and examine associations between brands' youth-targeted marketing practices and percentages of adolescent followers. We purchased data from Demographics Pro to characterize the demographics of Tw...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-03, Vol.17 (5), p.1631
Main Authors: Rummo, Pasquale E, Cassidy, Omni, Wells, Ingrid, Coffino, Jaime A, Bragg, Marie A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior
Adolescents
Advertising - economics
Advertising expenditures
Beverages
Demographics
Demography
Digital media
Expenditures
Fast food
Female
Food
Humans
Marketing
Social Media
Social networks
Teenagers
Television
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Summary:Background: To determine how many adolescents follow food/beverage brands on Instagram and Twitter, and examine associations between brands' youth-targeted marketing practices and percentages of adolescent followers. We purchased data from Demographics Pro to characterize the demographics of Twitter and Instagram users who followed 27 of the most highly advertised fast food, snack, and drink brands in 2019. We used one-sample -tests to compare percentages of adolescent followers of the selected brands' accounts versus all social media accounts, independent samples -tests to compare followers of sugary versus low-calorie drink brands, and linear regression to examine associations between youth-targeted marketing practices and the percentages of adolescent followers. An estimated 6.2 million adolescents followed the selected brands. A higher percentage of adolescents followed the selected brands' accounts (9.2%) compared to any account on Twitter (1.2%) ( < 0.001), but not Instagram. A higher percentage of adolescents followed sugary (7.9%) versus low-calorie drink brands (4.3%) on Instagram ( = 0.02), but we observed the opposite pattern for adults on Twitter and Instagram. Television advertising expenditures were positively associated with percentages of adolescent followers of the selected brands on Twitter ( = 0.03), but not Instagram. Food and sugary drink brands maintain millions of adolescent followers on social media.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph17051631