Addressing digital and targeted marketing to support equity and foster a Culture of Health

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Addressing digital and targeted marketing to support equity and foster a Culture of Health

Children and teens are more vulnerable to marketing’s influence than adults. Yet the industry spends nearly $2 billion a year targeting young people with mostly unhealthy products. What’s more, they market this junk food even more heavily to low-income children and young people of color — groups already at an elevated risk for numerous chronic diseases.

Public health advocates are beginning to understand — and address — such targeted marketing, but current efforts do not go far enough to tackle an issue of this magnitude, and research into the industry’s targeting tactics contains significant gaps.

With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, BMSG, the Center for Digital Democracy, Color Of Change, and UnidosUS are working to close that research gap and coordinate action and advocacy aimed at reducing — and eventually eliminating — junk food marketed targeted at low-income children and youth of color. Together, we are monitoring industry tactics, engaging industry in dialogue, developing best practices for talking about the issue using a health equity lens, creating advocacy campaigns to move the needle on both self-regulation and state and local policy change, and providing media advocacy trainings and other technical assistance for partners working on those campaigns.

Related resources

USDA online buying program for SNAP participants threatens their privacy and can exacerbate racial and health inequities, new report says

The 4 Ps of marketing: Selling junk food to communities of color

Junk food marketing to children of color: The current reality and what we can do about it [PPT slides]

Health equity and junk food marketing: Talking about kids of color

Tweet chat: Companies continue targeting Hispanic youth with unhealthy ads

Tweet chat: Framing the problem of junk food marketing to Latinos

Concerns about the USDA SNAP online pilot