Effects of Advertising: A Qualitative Analysis of Young Adults' Engagement with Social Media About Food.

Annika Molenaar,Wei Yee Saw,Megan S C Lim,Linda Brennan,Mike Reid,Tracy A Mccaffrey

doi:10.3390/nu13061934

Annika Molenaar, Wei Yee Saw + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061934

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Abstract

Young adults are constantly exposed to energy-dense, nutrient-poor food and beverages, particularly through advertising. Exposure can influence poor food choices and negatively impact health. This study aimed to understand young adults’ attitudes and experiences associated with food-related advertisements, particularly on social media. This qualitative analysis involved n = 166 Australian 18 to 24-year-olds who were involved in a four-week online conversation on different areas relating to health, social media, and eating. Inductive thematic analysis was utilised on two forums on the recall and perceptions of food-related advertisements. Young adults commonly mentioned aspects of the marketing mix (promotion, product, price, and place) in food advertisements. Participants were more readily able to recall energy-dense, nutrient-poor food advertisements compared to healthy food-related advertisements. Digital advertisements were often discussed alongside the use of ad-blockers and algorithms which tailored their social media viewing to what they like. Participants felt constant exposure to unhealthy food advertisements hindered their ability to realise healthy eating behaviours and created feelings of guilt. This current analysis highlights the need to provide an advertising environment that appropriately motivates healthy eating and a food environment that allows healthy food to be the affordable and convenient option.

Highlights

Food advertising has been found to be an important influence on food choices, eating behaviours, and consumption patterns [1]
The Communicating Health study, which runs over four years, aims to apply social marketing techniques to understand how young adults engage with social media regarding both health and healthy eating in order to guide the development of effective social marketing messages that motivate and engage young adults
Our results show that price was a key driver of unhealthy food choices, with most participants suggesting that healthy food was unaffordable and often relying on EDNP food, fast food

Summary

Introduction

Food advertising has been found to be an important influence on food choices, eating behaviours, and consumption patterns [1]. Energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods are associated with negative health consequences [2,3]. EDNP foods are some of the most advertised foods on television [4,5,6,7] and online [8,9,10]. Increased exposure to fast-food advertisements has been associated with increased consumption of EDNP foods in adults [11]. Marketing of EDNP foods to children is regulated in many countries [14,15,16]. Research on young adults is more limited, with some evidence indicating potential vulnerabilities to food advertising [17,18]

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