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: The Washington Post on January 31, 2014
In an effort to reverse declining milk sales, the dairy industry is using celebrity Olympic athletes to market chocolate milk as the ideal workout recovery drink. Their reasoning is founded by a dairy industry-funded study that found chocolate milk outperformed compared to other recovery drinks, an example of how industry-funded research can quickly become considered factual in the circles it most targets.Source: PR Newswire on January 30, 2014
The guide argues that, in the year of the World Cup, soccer marketing is an effective tool for companies to target consumers, particularly Latinos. The guide includes information about soccer teams, soccer stars, and the ways that companies currently use soccer marketing to target Latinos and others.Source: Orlando Sentinel on January 28, 2014
Olive Garden is heavily targeting busy parents with their "two for $25 special" by offering free babysitting for one night only at the kids' center chain My Gym. The restaurant chain is publicizing their "Parents Night Out" promotion on social media and requesting consumers share their "date night" experience with the hashtag #PGParentsNightOut on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.Source: Portada Online on January 27, 2014
This year was the first year that the Super Bowl was aired in Spanish, on the Fox Deportes network. There was a television broadcast as well as an online video stream, both of which allowed marketers to target Spanish speakers watching the game. The blog post also notes that the Taco Bell advertisement was one of the most popular ads among Latinos watching the English-language broadcast last year.Source: MediaPost on January 24, 2014
World Champion ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson, who recently returned to training after major surgery, is the brand ambassador for Frosted Flakes. Her story has put her at the center of the brand's feel-good Olympic promotional campaign, which evokes family togetherness and father/daughter bonding through social and traditional media outreach, such as a commercial that features her father, himself a former ski jumper.Source: Advertising Age on January 23, 2014
Oscar Mayer is using the Wienermobile, its "social media star," as the centerpiece of a new promotional giveaway. One fan who tweets with the hashtag #Tweet2Lease will be randomly selected to win one day of access to the iconic vehicle. The brand has partnered with Motor Trend, a well-known car magazine, to target car enthusiasts and build anticipation for the contest.Source: Food Politics on January 23, 2014
Marion Nestle expresses optimism about the announcement that Subway will be dedicating $41 million to its "Pile on the Veggies" campaign. She particularly commends the chain for "focusing on foods", but acknowledges that the company's plan to create nutrition standards to guide its marketing to children is only a first step.Source: PR Newswire on January 23, 2014
The report aims to assist marketers (including food marketers) to target these communities of color, and also contains information about the demographics of African American and Latino mobile users.The social media company is hoping to help advertisers target their products to its racially diverse user base. Twitter's new "multicultural strategist" says "advertisers want to know more about racial and ethnic minorities on Twitter, from basic numbers to the languages in which they tweet." This could have implications for food marketing, as food companies are increasingly marketing on social media, and could use this information to target unhealthy foods to specific communities.Source: MediaPost on January 21, 2014
McDonald's has launched the #CheersToSochi campaign, which encourages fans to use social media to send personalized messages to their favorite Olympic athletes. The promotion includes child-targeted videos that show children how to use the heavily-branded promotional website. The chain is also using its status as the "official restaurant of the Olympics" to launch a number of corporate social responsibility promotions centered on Russian children and the Olympics.
