We don’t want to admit that advertising influences our healthy food choices. But we both consciously and subconsciously believe it does so. To a large extent, food manufacturers also determine our portion sizes by supplying food in set sizes. This might be too large for what we need. And We know for sure that brands are paying a lot of attention to the aspirational lifestyle connected to their product. For, e.g., Diet Coke ads usually show a slim, flirtatious, funny, attractive woman. This approach easily catches the attention of a hunky man. Today, we would like to show you how advertising influences healthy food choices. You will also know how we can become more in control of what we want.
Food marketing and you
Food marketing is an advertisement that promotes the sale of certain foods or food products. Many foods marketed can contribute too much salt, sugar, or saturated fat to our eating habits.
Food marketing can take different forms, including:
- Branding
- Sponsorship of events
- Celebrity endorsements
- Contests and sales promotions
Social media posts on:
- Snapchat
Commercials:
- On TV
- radio
- or the internet
- Before the start of movies
Product placement:
- On TV
- In movies
- In magazines
- On social media posts
- In music lyrics and videos
Newer ways of marketing such as sponsored social media posts can be more difficult to recognize. This can make it difficult to know when you’re going to be advertised.
Marketing can also be targeted to you based on your data, such as your:
- Age and gender
- Collecting history
- History of online browsing
Behavioral advertising tracks your data and web behaviors overtime to deliver targeted ads.
What are common strategies used to market foods to boost healthy food choices?
Common marketing strategies used in food advertising can include:
- Health claims or nutrient claims (Example: “Calcium helps to build strong bones.”)
- Bright and eye-catching colors and photography
- Memorable slogans, songs, and jingles, or catchphrases
- Free or exclusive prizes
- Actors and cartoon characters as spokesmen
- Offer or discount prices
Links to poor eating
More attention is now being given to the correlation between television consumption and people’s dietary intake. 2006 Institute of Medicine study found significant evidence that “Food and beverage marketing influences people’s preference and purchase requests. This may contribute to negative diet-related health outcomes and risks.”
Early studies have found that individuals exposed to food advertising eat more. Since Watching a short cartoon featuring a food commercial, primary-school-aged children ate 45 percent more food snacks than children who watched the same cartoon commercials for other non-food items.
The same pattern was observed in meals immediately after exposure to food ads and years later. Family cartoon characters used in on-air or in front of package promotions have also affected cereal choice in young children. Two different studies have shown that children enjoy the taste of food advertised by popular celebrities. The key factor seems to have some scientific basis.
How food marketing can influence your healthy food choices?
Food promotion is all around us. You’re likely to receive a constant stream of changing and often conflicting food messages. This can make it difficult to make healthy food choices.
Food advertising can affect you in many ways. It has been designed to:
- Create food trends
Encourage you to:
- Buy certain foods or drinks
Buy foods to get promotional items such as:
- Loyalty point
- Tickets to movies or sports events
- Coupons for future food purchases
- To establish links between certain foods or brands and a particular lifestyle;
- Create brand loyalty so that you can choose to purchase products of a brand name from a particular store.
Benefits of being aware of food marketing
Being conscious of food marketing is a food skill that can help:
- Recognize when food is being sold to you
- Decide whether a food product is healthy by using food labeling rather than depending on marketing messages alone
- Teach marketing techniques for those who may be more vulnerable to food marketing, such as young children and adolescents
How to be aware of food advertising when making healthy food choices?
Using these tips to help you make informed choices:
Use food labels:
- Stick to the grocery list and stop purchasing impulses.
The question of whether you want to buy food or drink. Do you think that:
- Is it cool?
- Is it healthy?
- Will it improve your mood?
- Will it provide nutritional benefits?
Question what kind of marketing you got these ideas from, like:
- A sponsored blog post
- Celebrity sponsorship
- Messages on the product itself
Explore options to reduce your exposure to advertising. Try to:
- Limit the duration of the screen
- use of ad-free platforms
- Installing software that limits advertising and pop-ups
Learn about:
- What would you do to protect your privacy?
- How to use your web browsing history to send you targeted ads?
Before you post or like online content like a video, a game, a blog, or a quiz, ask:
- If you want to share a food or drink product promotion
Speak to the people around you about the marketing effects. Ask each other:
- Whether you’ve ever bought food, even though you don’t intend to, and why you think it is.
- What methods do you use to help minimize your exposure to food marketing?
How do you become an informed customer and promote healthy eating?
Food products and services advertisements are available in multiple areas. These include tv advertising, restaurants, grocery stores, magazines, newspapers, posters, etc.
There are several ways to promote healthy food and tame advertising temptations. To become an informed customer and limit the consumption of food advertisements, try the following ideas:
- Learn as a whole family. Spending time together as a whole family by cooking, grocery shopping, farmers’ market visits, menu planning, or reading the Nutrition Facts label are good ways to learn more about food and become educated consumers.
- Play family games away from the screen. Setting time away from the television as an entire family can further promote healthier habits. It will also limit the viewing of advertisements. Plan enjoyable family activities, including reading books and playing outdoor or indoor games.
- Try watching tv programs without advertising. Television programs, particularly children’s programs, are flooded with food products advertisements. Try buying or renting DVDs or using streaming services to reduce the number of ads shown during one sitting.
- Take a family survey. Ask your family where they regularly see food ads and what items they especially see. Their answers could come as a surprise to you and also give you talking points about making a healthy choice.
The Bottom Line
Healthy behaviors start with you! The next time you see a food advertising, try to analyze it. See how you can see marketing strategies, how they make you feel, and if the food product or service being advertised is a healthy choice.
