Food and Beverage Advertising Aimed at Spanish Children Issued through Mobile Devices: A Study from a Social Marketing and Happiness Management Perspective.

Gloria Jiménez-Marín,Rodrigo Elías Zambrano,Araceli Galiano-Coronil,Rafael Ravina-Ripoll

doi:10.3390/ijerph17145056

Abstract

Eating Disorders (ED) and obesity are a pandemic in developed and developing societies. In 2018, Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumption reported data on obesity (15%) and ED (12%). Spain thus ranks fifth among European countries in childhood obesity, with the highest incidence in the 6–12-year-age group. Many studies point to media as one of the contributing elements to this growth. In this sense, it should be noted that Spanish children are exposed to an average of 9000 television commercials per year and the vast majority of these are for food and beverage products of little or no nutritional value. Educommunication becomes essential here, since media have the capacity to educate, prevent and influence the behaviour as part of their social marketing strategies and within the happiness management philosophy. The aim of this paper is to analyse food and beverage advertising on mobile devices aimed at children. The methodology used includes a content analysis, a survey, and focus groups. The results show that many of the food products are bought or ordered as a direct result of advertising. The main conclusions point to the need to regulate the messages transmitted in order to guide the social function of media so that public health and happiness can be improved.

Highlights

This article analyses food and beverage advertising on mobile devices aimed at children
In relation question to the is amount children in front of thewith media, the 8ofpeople or consuming any of the products shown is only 4.44% (14 adults). This may be logical to the table admitted that children spend too much time in front of technologies; when asked to extent that the level of training is much higher; what is striking about the data is that, quantify how long they thought it was appropriate formade children be in front of a tablet or smartphone, apart from these 14 respondents, 198 (62.85%)
This study showed that children are consuming, with undesirable strategies, advertisements for foods, sweetened drinks, sweets and cereals with added sugar, or carbohydrates, which are higher in calories, fats and sugars and have little or no nutritional value

Summary

Introduction

This article analyses food and beverage advertising on mobile devices aimed at children. This study found that many of the food products are bought or ordered as a direct result of this advertising. The impact of mobile devices on Internet consumption is a reality that affects all countries and all age groups. In the Spanish case, 91.4% of households had Internet access and 66.0% of the population aged 10 to 15 years old had a mobile phone, and the older they are, the greater the use of ICTs, especially from the age of 13 years old onwards [1]. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 5056; doi:10.3390/ijerph17145056 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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