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. 2020 May;15(5):e12606.
doi: 10.1111/ijpo.12606. Epub 2019 Dec 25.

Fast food, beverage, and snack brands on social media in the United States: An examination of marketing techniques utilized in 2000 brand posts

Marie A Bragg  1   2 , Yrvane K Pageot  1 , Angela Amico  1 , Alysa N Miller  3 , Angela Gasbarre  2 , Pasquale E Rummo  1 , Brian Elbel  1   4
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Fast food, beverage, and snack brands on social media in the United States: An examination of marketing techniques utilized in 2000 brand posts

Marie A Bragg et al. Pediatr Obes. 2020 May.

Abstract

Background: Exposure to food advertisements is associated with poor diet among youth, and food and beverage companies are increasingly advertising on social media sites that are popular among youth.

Objective: To identify the prevalence of social media advertising among fast food, beverage, and snack companies and examine advertising techniques they use on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Vine.

Methods: We quantified the increase in the creation of social media accounts from 2007 to 2016 among 200 fast food, beverage, and snack brands from the United States. We conducted content analyses to examine the marketing themes and healthfulness of products featured in 2000 posts from a subset of 20 brands and used multilevel regression to assess associations between marketing themes (eg, adolescents socializing) and interactive tools (eg, hashtags).

Results: Two hundred brands collectively managed 568 accounts in 2016. Content analyses revealed that unique social media features (eg, geo-tags) appeared in 74.5% (n = 1489) of posts, and 31.5% (n = 630) were interactive. Posts featuring adolescents were more likely to be interactive than posts featuring adults (P < 0.001). Two-thirds (67.9%; n = 362) of foods shown were unhealthy, and 61.2% (n = 435) of beverages were sugar sweetened.

Conclusions: Social media food advertising is pervasive and uses interactive tools to engage with users.

Keywords: adolescents; nutrition; social media; social media marketing.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors have indicated that they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow chart describing the methods for identifying brands and posts that were used in the analyses. Brands were identified by searching from the social media platform homepage for brand names, choosing an account attributed to the brand, and confirming the account as the official account by identifying the blue checkmark next to the account name given to celebrities, brands, and public figures to verify their identity
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Trend in the growth of social media account creation by food, beverage, and snack brands over time. The number of food, beverage, and snack brand accounts on five social media platforms has increased by 567% from 2007 to 2016
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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