Marketing has a profound affect on the foods we eat and the beverages we drink, yet most of that marketing is for products we should avoid. BMSG monitors the media to help keep advocates informed of the tactics food and beverage companies use to target children, communities of color, and other groups that are particularly susceptible to the health harms these products cause. Below are archives of our monitoring.
Source: PR Newswire on September 26, 2012
With the "Love your Cereal" campaign, Kellogg's is trying to take advantage of parents' desires to nourish their kids while balancing a busy schedule. Kellogg's is framing cereal-and-milk for breakfast as the best and easiest way to do this.Source: MediaPost on September 26, 2012
Last year, Yoplait was the first General Mills brand to have a dedicated social engagement manager, known to Facebook fans as "Yoplait Sara." The moniker reflects the brand's new tactic to seem more sociable by not talking at consumers but rather getting them to converse.Source: The Huffington Post on September 26, 2012
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which reauthorized childhood nutrition programs, represents "a rare victory over special interests," writes Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. In this article, Jacobson alerts readers to industry efforts to "sneak junk foods back into the school lunch program."Source: Raman Media Network on September 25, 2012
To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, the National Hispanic "Got Milk?" Campaign urges Latino high school students to submit an essay describing how milk for breakfast has helped fuel their success. The "Futuro con Leche" scholarship program appeals to teens in part through print ads featuring popular Latino athletes and public figures.Source: Warc on September 25, 2012
Threatened by local rivals, the two companies revived discontinued brands to appeal to local tastes. So Sprite was out, Citra was back in. A company executive said: "Local is the new national for brands."Source: Progressive Grocer on September 25, 2012
The chain partnered with Vestcom's healthyAisles shelf-edge program to provide shoppers with nutrition guidance. It uses 33 nutritional attributes to highlight food traits like "sensible carbs" and "sugar aware." Vestcom's program is used by 27 retail clients (6,000 stores).Source: FoodNavigator.com on September 25, 2012
Kraft's iD gum is an example of teen-targeted marketing that tries to tap into teens' desire to "explore and display their creativity and individuality." As one exec puts it: "Staying in the Millennials' pantry means connecting to the emotional attributes that drive their decisions and conversations."Source: ABC News on September 24, 2012
The food industry says they've made improvements in child marketing. However, research from the Rudd Center shows, for example, that cereal companies recently increased child-targeted advertising for some of their least nutritious products. The report is due out later this year.Source: Forbes.com on September 24, 2012
Food Genius is a new restaurant and dish recommendation app. Its goal is to use big data mining technologies to capture consumer information and provide "actionable insights" to the food industry, like "what dishes to make, how to market them and how to price them."Source: Boston.com on September 24, 2012
Kellogg partnered with an international agribusiness to aggressively market cereal and other products in China, whose market for cereal is expected to reach $225M this year -- double that of five years ago.
