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 December 06, 2012
The campaign will feature a blogging event with tamale making, an empanada exchange, and a live Twitter chat. Retailers will also distribute a free, bilingual book called "A new twist on holiday entertaining" with recipes and tips.Source: QSR Magazine on December 06, 2012
The chain is running two new Facebook contests that require consumer interaction in the form of video and photo submissions. Prizes include having one's image broadcast over Times Square on New Year's Eve. The company is also advertising virtual gift cards that can be sent via email, text and Facebook.Source: MediaPost on December 06, 2012
Planters is following the advertising formula used by so many other purveyors of consumer packaged goods -- it's expanding its social marketing (along with its line of flavors) and boasting health claims. The current Facebook promotion offers coupons to fans as an anniversary thank-you.Source: FoodPolitics on December 05, 2012
BMSG is among the advocates calling for the children's TV channel and its parent company Viacom to adopt stricter standards for the nutritional profile of advertised foods (much like Disney recently did).Source: ColorLines on December 04, 2012
The San Francisco Giant's World Series-winning pitcher, Sergio Romo, had a flavor of Three Twins Ice Cream named after him. Like the T-shirt Romo wears that reads, "I just look illegal," the ice cream "only tastes illegal." Sale proceeds will be donated to support immigration reform efforts.Source: Advertising Age on December 03, 2012
The beer manufacturer is changing its Latino marketing from a niche agency to a more mainstream agency, a reflection of its turn away from demographic targeting and toward "psychographic targeting." A Heineken executive explains: "There's a shift in what consumers are interested in what they believe in and value in life. It trumps where they happen to be from or what their ethnic group is."Source: EMaxHealth on December 01, 2012
According to a new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, overweight and obese children are less able to resist advertisements for high fat, high sugar, and high sodium foods than are their normal-weight peers. In lieu of regulation that would limit manufacturers' ability to make and market such food, the study's authors conclude that the solution to childhood obesity is "helping kids with self-control ... [through] obesity and behavioral health interventions."Source: The Huffington Post on December 01, 2012
This article and the accompanying slideshow address common misconceptions about the fast food industry (such as the average age of fast food workers), and touches on equity and justice issues that plague the industry.Source: Advertising Age on November 29, 2012
Lucky Charms has launched a campaign that includes TV spots and a Facebook page targeting adult consumers with ads that tap into "feel-good nostalgia" for the brand. The company denies that its increasing focus on adults is a response to regulatory pressure around food advertising to children.Source: AlterNet on November 29, 2012
Laura Gottesdiener challenges the food industry's use of "perverse, profit-chasing schemes to capitalize on children's appetites at the expense of their long-term health." Among other tactics, she chastises companies for marketing in schools and committing only to weak self-regulatory pledges.
