Call to limit advertising of unhealthy food brands

Pre-school children can identify Coca-Cola and Coco Pops far more readily than Actimel or cheese strings even though similar TV advertising time is devoted to each of these brands, according to research.

The finding that brand knowledge among children is higher for unhealthy foods, even where healthy foods are advertised as often, has led to calls for restriction of unhealthy food advertising beyond television.

Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan, director, Human Health & Nutrition, SafeFood, said the research “reiterates the growing recognition of the need for further restrictions on marketing and advertising of foods high in fat, salt and sugar”.

“In tackling childhood obesity and poor nutrition in children, we need to recognise the role of media channels aimed at children which advertise these foods such as the internet, online gaming and text messaging,” she said.

The all-island study, carried out by researchers at University College Dublin (UCD) and Queen’s University Belfast in 2012, involved 172 children aged 3-5 who were shown logos for nine food and drink brands, both healthy and unhealthy. The brands were chosen from the top 20 brands most heavily advertised during children’s programmes.

The unhealthy brands included Coca-Cola, Coco Pops, McDonald’s, Cadbury and Pringles. The healthy brands, classified as such under nutrient profiling rules, included Frubes, Innocent Drinks (juice and smoothies), Actimel and cheese strings.

Children were shown logos for the brand, asked to name it, explain what it was, and match the logo to a picture of the food or drink. The children recognised twice as many unhealthy brands as healthy ones.

Research co-author and psychologist Dr Mimi Tatlow-Golden of UCD said while the study found children’s brand knowledge of unhealthy food was “significantly related” to their television viewing and parental eating habits, they couldn’t establish why children had poor awareness of healthy food brands given similar advertising levels.

“We’re intrigued. We don’t know what it could be. It could be that certain foods have an ‘aura of treat’ or that they have formed a strong emotional connection with a food that has high fat, high sugar content, but that is entering the realm of speculation,” Dr Tatlow-Golden said.

Dr Tatlow-Golden said the findings suggested a need to look at the complete marketing environment, not just TV advertising.

“It looks as if marketing effects may be taking place through parents, who choose food for themselves and for their children,” she said.

The findings also highlighted a window of opportunity for educating families and young children in the preschool years, Dr Tatlow-Golden said.

One suggestion was for family-focused obesity prevention programmes to begin before children reach the age of three, when brand awareness begins to increase significantly and against a backdrop that children’s food knowledge develops before they understand which foods are not healthy.

Research co-author Dr Eilis Hennessy, UCD, said parent education and family interventions were important, as well as creative support for food education in crèches and preschools.

“It should include teaching children about what’s not healthy – not just what’s good for them – as they have little understanding of this, yet they have high levels of knowledge about unhealthy food brands,” Dr Hennessy said.

Top brands

The most popular healthy brands: Frubes, Innocent Drinks (juice and smoothies), Actimel, and cheese strings.

The most popular unhealthy brands: Coca-Cola, Coco Pops, McDonald’s, Cadbury.