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 November 18, 2013
After partnering with Latin music duo Domino Saints for a song for Honey Bunches of Oats, Post Foods is now promoting the song at the Latin Grammy awards, clearly aiming to build popularity and connections with Latino consumers. Presenters and performers at the awards show will receive limited-edition boxes of the cereal. The song is part of a national campaign called "Bunch of Beats."Source: Al Jazeera America on November 17, 2013
In this opinion piece, lawyer and writer Jill Filipovic points out the irony of self-regulation and calls for the government to move beyond education campaigns towards comprehensive regulation to protect the public from the industry's misleadingly marketed junk food.Source: Advertising Age on November 15, 2013
McDonald's will distribute toys based on Nickelodeon's "NFL Rush Zone" TV series. An NFL spokesperson comments that kids are a "major priority" for their marketing because research indicates that kids who become fans of NFL teams in their elementary school years become "locked in for life." Presumably, McDonald's is hoping that the same will happen for their brand and that the Happy Meals will "lock in" kids to McDonald's food.Source: The Huffington Post on November 15, 2013
The industry-aimed campaign urges restaurants to "turn the tap off" and trains them on the best ways to push empty calories and unhealthy, high-sugar drinks to customers, all in the name of profit.Source: The Washington Post on November 13, 2013
In an interview with The Washington Post, Ad Age reporter Maureen Morrison discusses the implications of the Yale Rudd Center's latest report on food marketing to children. The report found that kids and teens remain a primary target for the $4.6 billion a year that the food industry spends on marketing mostly unhealthy products. Asked whether growing comparisons between the food industry and Big Tobacco are fair, Morrison says that food companies "hate" the comparison, but she says that, like the tobacco industry, she can see Big Food becoming "more and more regulated as time goes by."Source: Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity on November 12, 2013
The study, written by Zewditu Demissie and others and published this year, can be found by clicking "Marketing to Youth." The study demonstrates a relationship between media exposure and sugary drink consumption -- and an inverse relationship between media exposure and intake of healthy beverages.Source: MediaPost on November 11, 2013
Hoping to drive sales, the Milk Processor Education Program has launched a chocolate milk campaign that ties into the upcoming winter Olympics. Promotion will feature ads claiming that Olympic athletes are "built with chocolate milk."Source: MultiVu on November 11, 2013
Domino Saints is a pop-duo from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The campaign features a new samba-inspired 'brand anthem' "Smile While You Shake It." The song also has a signature dance that incorporates the cereal box and breakfast utensils as percussion instruments. The campaign will feature bilingual media, social media and websites.Source: just-drinks on November 11, 2013
The energy drink company is planning on proposing industry-wide voluntary guidelines on marketing to children. This is a clear example of how companies marketing harmful products use self-regulation to prevent government regulation that could protect children's health and limit their exposure to this type of marketing.Source: AlterNet on November 10, 2013
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has announced the "winner" of its Xtreme Eating Awards, prompting Riddhi Shah to muse, "What's most striking ... [is] the way restaurants have managed to camouflage unhealthy meals as dishes that sound like paragons of healthful deliciousness."
