Prevalence of Child-Directed Marketing on Breakfast Cereal Packages before and after Chile’s Food Marketing Law: A Pre- and Post-Quantitative Content Analysis

Fernanda Mediano Stoltze, Marcela Reyes, Taillie Lindsey Smith, Teresa Correa, Camila Corvalán and Francesca R. Dillman Carpentier
Additional contact information
Fernanda Mediano Stoltze: Hussman School of Journalism and Media, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA, fmediano@email.unc.edu
Marcela Reyes: Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Chile, 7830489 Santiago, Chile
Taillie Lindsey Smith: Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA
Teresa Correa: School of Communication, Diego Portales University, 8370109 Santiago, Chile
Camila Corvalán: Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Chile, 7830489 Santiago, Chile
Francesca R. Dillman Carpentier: Hussman School of Journalism and Media, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA, fmediano@email.unc.edu

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-15

Abstract: Food marketing has been identified as a contributing factor in childhood obesity, prompting global health organizations to recommend restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children. Chile has responded to this recommendation with a restriction on child-directed marketing for products that exceed certain regulation-defined thresholds in sugars, saturated fats, sodium, or calories. Child-directed strategies are allowed for products that do not exceed these thresholds. To evaluate changes in marketing due to this restriction, we examined differences in the use of child-directed strategies on breakfast cereal packages that exceeded the defined thresholds vs. those that did not exceed the thresholds before ( n = 168) and after ( n = 153) the restriction was implemented. Photographs of cereal packages were taken from top supermarket chains in Santiago. Photographed cereals were classified as “high-in” if they exceeded any nutrient threshold described in the regulation. We found that the percentage of all cereal packages using child-directed strategies before implementation (36%) was significantly lower after implementation (21%), p < 0.05. This overall decrease is due to the decrease we found in the percentage of “high-in” cereals using child-directed strategies after implementation (43% before implementation, 15% after implementation), p < 0.05. In contrast, a greater percentage of packages that did not qualify as “high-in” used child-directed strategies after implementation (30%) compared with before implementation (8%), p < 0.05. The results suggest that the Chilean food marketing regulation can be effective at reducing the use of child-directed marketing for unhealthy food products.

Keywords: child-directed marketing; food marketing; food packages; marketing regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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