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: Financial Times on March 04, 2012
The Financial Times reviews how food companies target Latinos as a "local emerging market" by creating tailored products designed to appeal to this group, for instance, products such as "Tapatio" flavored chips and "Dulce de Leche" Cheerios. Companies such as Coca-Cola, General Mills and Kellogg have invested the most significant resources to reach this group. [Registration may be required to view article]
Source: Los Angeles Times on March 03, 2012
Wal-Mart has announced plans for 13 Neighborhood Markets, the retail giant's smaller-format grocery store, in California. Critics argue that Wal-Mart is using this as a strategy to circumvent community opposition to previous efforts to expand in California.
Source: CSNewsFoodService on March 02, 2012
Coca-Cola's Powerade brand teams up with 7-Eleven to offer Mountain Berry Blast Slurpees and fountain drinks sold in NCAA souvenir cups depicting "miracle moments" in the college March Madness basketball tournaments.
Source: MediaPost on March 01, 2012
MediaPost's Jose Villa says that "it may be time to reconsider the concept of a multicultural segment" especially when marketing to youth. He notes "minority youth feel they are the very definition of multicultural" and that multiracial children are the fastest-growing youth group in the U.S. This will have important implications for public health advocates monitoring how food and beverage companies target their marketing to ethnic youth.
Source: Food Politics on March 01, 2012
Marion Nestle critiques the use of "natural" to market products and deceive consumers and tells the FDA to "get to work!"
Source: Mother Jones on March 01, 2012
Mother Jones' food blogger Tom Philpott discusses the NIH's Northern Manhattan Study, which finds that "people who drink at least one diet soda a day are 43 percent more likely to experience a 'vascular event' -- i.e., strokes and heart attacks -- than people who drink none."
Source: Advertising Age on Feburary 29, 2012
Coca-Cola executive Kimberly Paige discusses "marketing segmentation", also known as target marketing or multicultural marketing. She describes Coca-Cola's communications approach as one based on a "specific insight or set of values and beliefs that say to consumers, 'We get you, we recognize you and we appreciate you.'"
Source: USA Today on Feburary 29, 2012
On average, kids consume 322 calories a day from added sugars. Boys consume 362 calories a day from them; girls, 282 calories.
Source: SFGate on Feburary 29, 2012
In an attempt to promote healthier foods to children, a new state law in California would bar food trucks from operating within 1,500 feet of an elementary, middle or high school between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on school days.
Source: American Beverage Association on Feburary 29, 2012
The ABA takes the latest CDC's study as an opportunity to defend beverages. It emphasizes that "this report shows that food, not beverages are the leading source of calories from added sugars" and that "beverages do not uniquely contribute to obesity."
