The alarming increase in childhood obesity has captured the attention of a broad set of citizens and institutions, with calls for action becoming increasingly powerful. Particular questions are being raised about the impacts of food marketing on children. The Internet has become an important marketing communications tool and is being used by advertisers to target children. This has prompted calls for a review of online marketing practices from public health officials, policy makers, consumer advocates, and industry groups. The objectives of this study are to inform decision makers about the nature of online marketing to children and to identify practices that may raise policy concerns. The authors report results of the first systematic content analysis of food marketers’ Web sites that either target children directly or contain content of interest to them. The authors identify 11 online marketing practices of public policy relevance. They discuss the empirical findings in terms of these issues and outline research needs.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AakerDavid A. (2002), “The Internet as Integrator: Fast Brand Building in Slow-Growth Markets,”Strategy & Business, 28, 16–21.
2.
AlexanderAlison, LouiseM. Benjamin, HoerrnerKeisha, and RoeDarrell (1998), “We'll Be Back in a Moment: A Content Analysis of Advertisements in Children's Television in the 1950s,”Journal of Advertising, 27 (Fall), 1–9.
3.
BarcusF.E. (1980), “The Nature of Television Advertising to Children,” in Children and the Faces of Television, PalmerE.L., and DorrA., eds. New York: Academic Press, 287–305.
BertrimByron (2005), “It's How You Play the Games,”Marketing Magazine, 110 (16), 18–25.
6.
BrownSteven P., PamelaM. Homer, and InmanJeffrey (1998), “A Meta-Analysis of Relationships Between Ad-Evoked Feelings and Advertising Responses,”Journal of Marketing Research, 35 (February), 114–26.
7.
BrownSteven P., PamelaM. Homer, and DouglasM. Stayman (1992), “Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude Toward the Ad: A Meta-Analysis,”Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (June), 34–51.
8.
BrucksM., ArmstrongG.M., and GoldbergM.E. (1988), “Children's Use of Cognitive Defenses Against Television Advertising: A Cognitive Response Approach,”Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (March), 471–82.
9.
CARU (2006), Self-Regulatory Program for Children's Advertising, 8th ed.New York: Council of Better Business Bureaus, (accessed November 21, 2006), [available at http://www.caru.org/guidelines/index.asp].
10.
Children's Television Act (1990), Public Law No. 101-437, 104 Stat. 996-1000.
11.
CohenJoel B., PhamMichel Tuan, and EduardoB. Andrade (2007), “The Nature and Role of Affect in Consumer Behavior,” in Handbook of Consumer Psychology, HaugtvedtC.P., HerrP., and KardesF., eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
12.
COPPA (1999), Final Rule November 13, Federal Register, 64 (212), 59888–59915.
13.
Council of Better Business Bureaus (2006), “Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative,” (accessed April 26, 2007), [available at: http://www.cbbb.org/initiative/].
14.
CSPI (2003), Pestering Parents: How Food Companies Market Obesity to Children.Washington, DC: CSPI.
DerbaixChristian, and BreeJoel (1977), “The Impact of Children's Affective Reactions Elicited by Commercials on Attitudes Toward the Advertisement and the Brand,”International Journal of Research in Marketing, 14 (July), 207–229.
FerrazziK., and BenezraK. (2001), “Journey to the Top,”Brandweek, (April 16), 28–36.
24.
FriestadMarian, and WrightPeter (2005), “The Next Generation: Research for the Twenty-First-Century Public Policy on Children,”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 24 (Fall), 183–85.
FTC (2006a), “Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, Retention of Rule Without Modification,” 16 CFR Part 312, Washington, DC (March 15).
27.
FTC (2006b), “Perspectives on Marketing, Self-Regulation and Childhood Obesity,” FTC and DHHS report, Washington, DC.
28.
GantzWalter, SchwartzNancy, JamesR. Angelini, and RideoutVictoria (2007), “Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States,” Kaiser Family Foundation report, Menlo Park, CA.
29.
GoetzlDavid (2006), “Television has Competition in Pursuit of Kids,”Television Week, (February 20), 10.
30.
GrossmanSeth (2005), “Grand Theft Oreo: The Constitutionality of Advergame Regulation,”Yale Law Journal, 115 (October), 227–37.
31.
HastingsGerard, SteadMartine, McDermottLaura, ForsythAlasdair, MacKintoshAnne Marie, RaynerMike (2003), “Review of Research on the Effects of Food Promotion to Children,” Center for Social Marketing, University of Strathclyde, report to the Food Standards Agency, Glasgow, UK.
32.
HempPaul (2006), “Avatar-Based Marketing,”Harvard Business Review, 84 (June), 48–57.
33.
HenkeLucy L. (1995), “Young Children's Perceptions of Cigarette Brand Advertising Symbols: Awareness, Affect and Target Market Identification,”Journal of Advertising, 24 (Winter), 13–28.
34.
IacobucciDawn (1995), “Analysis of Variance for Unbalanced Data,” in Marketing Theory and Applications: AMA Winter Educators’ Conference Proceedings, Vol. 6, StewartD.W., and VilcassimN.J., eds. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 337–43.
35.
IOM (2006), Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
36.
IppolitoPauline M., and JanisK. Pappalardo (2002), “Advertising, Nutrition & Health: Evidence from Food Advertising 1977-1997,” Bureau of Economics staff report, FTC, Washington, DC.
37.
IslerLeslie, EdwardT. Popper, and WardScott (1987), “Children's Purchase Requests and Parental Responses: Results from a Diary Study,”Journal of Advertising Research, 27 (October-November), 28–39.
38.
JacobsenMichael F. (2006), “Weak New Voluntary Guidelines on Advertising to Kids Designed to Protect Marketers, Not Parents and Families,” Center for Science in the Public Interest press release, (November 14), (accessed November 24, 2006), [available at http://www.cspinet.org/new/200611141.html].
39.
JaniszewskiChris (1993), “Preattentive Mere Exposure Effects,”Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (December), 376–92.
40.
JohnDeborah Roedder (1999), “Consumer Socialization of Children: A Retrospective Look at Twenty-Five Years of Research,”Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (December), 183–213.
41.
KassarjianHarold H. (1977), “Content Analysis in Consumer Research,”Journal of Consumer Research, 4 (June), 8–18.
42.
KolbeRichard H., and MelissaS. Burnett (1991), “Content-Analysis Research: An Examination of Applications with Directives for Improving Research Reliability and Objectivity,”Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (September), 243–50.
43.
KotlerJennifer (2005), “The Healthy Habits for Life Initiative at Sesame Workshop,” paper presented at the Marketing, Self-Regulation, and Childhood Obesity Workshop of the FTC and the DHHS, Washington, DC, (July 15), (accessed November 26, 2006), [available at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/foodmarketingtokids/index.htm].
44.
KunkelDale (2001), “Children and Television Advertising,” in Handbook of Children and the Media, SingerD.G., and SingerJ.L., eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 375–94.
45.
KunkelDale, and GantzWilliam (1992), “Children's Television Advertising in the Multi-Channel Environment,”Journal of Communication, 42 (3), 134–52.
46.
KunkelDale, and WilcoxBrian (2001), “Children and Media Policy,” in Handbook of Children and the Media, SingerD.G., and SingerJ.L., eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 589–604.
47.
KunkelDale, WilcoxBrian, CantorJoanne, PalmerEdward, LinnSusan, and DowrickPeter (2004), Report of the Task Force on Advertising and Children.Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
48.
LindstromMartin, and PatriciaB. Seybold (2003), Brand Child.London: Kogan Page.
49.
LinnSusan (2004), Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood.New York: New Press.
MacKenzieScott B., RichardJ. Lutz, and GeorgeE. Belch (1986), “The Role of Attitude Toward the Ad as a Mediator of Advertising Effectiveness: A Test of Competing Explanations,”Journal of Marketing Research, 23 (May), 130–43.
52.
MaherJill K., and NancyM. Childs (2003), “A Longitudinal Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Children's Television Advertisements: A 27-Year Review,”Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 25 (1), 71–81.
53.
MizerskiRichard (1995), “The Relationship Between Trade Cartoon Character Recognition and Attitude Toward Product Category in Young Children,”Journal of Marketing, 59 (October), 58–70.
54.
MontgomeryKathryn C. (2001), “Digital Kids: The New On-line Children's Consumer Culture,” in Handbook of Children and the Media, SingerD.G., and SingerJ.L., eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication, 635–50.
55.
MooreElizabeth S. (2004), “Children and the Changing World of Advertising,”Journal of Business Ethics, 52 (June), 161–67.
56.
MooreElizabeth S. (2005), “An Overview of Academic Marketing Research on Children's Issues,” paper presented at the Workshop on Marketing Strategies that Foster Healthy Food Choices in Children, IOM, National Academies of Science, Washington, DC (January 27).
57.
MooreElizabeth S. (2006), “It's Child's Play: Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food to Children,” Kaiser Family Foundation report, Menlo Park, CA.
58.
MooreElizabeth S., and RichardJ. Lutz (2000), “Children, Advertising, and Product Experiences: A Multimethod Inquiry,”Journal of Consumer Research, 27 (June), 31–48.
59.
MoschisGeorge P. (1987), Consumer Socialization.Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
60.
MosesLouis J., and DareA. Baldwin (2005), “What Can the Study of Cognitive Development Reveal About Children's Ability to Appreciate and Cope with Advertising?”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 24 (Fall), 186–201.
61.
NaikPrasad A., and RamanKalyan (2003), “Understanding the Impact of Synergy in Multimedia Communications,”Journal of Marketing Research, 40 (November), 375–88.
NARC (2006), “New Food, Beverage Initiative to Focus Kids’ Ads on Healthy Choices; Revised Guidelines Strengthen CARU's Guidance to Food Advertisers,” (accessed July 11, 2007), [available at www.cbbb.org/initiative/].
64.
NeeleySabrina M., and DavidW. Schumann (2004), “Using Animated Spokes-Characters in Advertising to Young Children,”Journal of Advertising, 33 (Fall), 7–23.
65.
NeslinScott A. (2002), “Sales Promotion,” in Handbook of Marketing, WeitzB.A., and WensleyR., eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 310–38.
NordhielmChristie (2002), “The Influence of Level of Processing on Advertising Repetition Effects,”Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (December), 371–82.
OgdenCynthia L., MargaretD. Carroll, LesterR. Curtin, MargaretA. McDowell, CarolynJ. Tabak, and KatherineM. Flagel (2006), “Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in the United States 1994-2004,”Journal of the American Medical Association, 295 (13), 1549–55.
70.
OgdenCynthia L., KatherineM. Flegal, MargaretD. Carroll, and CliffordL. Johnson (2002), “Prevalence and Trends in Overweight Among U.S. Children and Adolescents 1999-2000,”Journal of the American Medical Association, 288 (14), 1728–32.
RideoutVictoria J. (2005), “Preventing Childhood Obesity: The Role of Food Marketing,” paper presented at the Workshop on Marketing Strategies that Foster Healthy Food Choices in Children, IOM, National Academies of Science, Washington, DC (January 27).
73.
RideoutVictoria J., ElizabethA. Vandewater, and EllenA. Wartella (2003), “Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers,” Kaiser Family Foundation report, Menlo Park, CA.
74.
RobertsDonald F., UllaG. Foehr, and RideoutVictoria (2005), “Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18-Year-Olds,” Kaiser Family Foundation report, Menlo Park, CA.
75.
RuckerDerek D., and RichardE. Petty (2006), “Increasing the Effectiveness of Communications to Consumers: Recommendations Based on Elaboration Likelihood and Attitude Certainty Perspectives,”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 25 (Spring), 39–52.
76.
RustRoland T., and CooilBruce (1994), “Reliability Measures for Qualitative Data: Theory and Implications,”Journal of Marketing Research, 31 (February), 1–14.
77.
SchorJuliet (2004), Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture.New York: Scribner.
78.
ShapiroStewart (1999), “When an Ad's Influence Is Beyond Our Conscious Control: Perceptual and Conceptual Fluency Effects Caused by Incidental Ad Exposure,”Journal of Consumer Research, 26 (June), 16–36.
79.
ShimpTerence A., RobertF. Dyer, and SalvatoreF. Divita (1976), “An Experimental Test of the Harmful Effects of Premium-Oriented Commercials on Children,”Journal of Consumer Research, 3 (June), 1–11.
80.
SieglerRobert S. (1996), Emerging Minds: The Process of Change in Children's Thinking.New York: Oxford University Press.
U.S. Department of Education (2003), “Computer and Internet Use by Children and Adolescents in 2001,” National Center for Education Statistics Report No. 2004-014.
WrightPeter (1975), “Consumer Choice Strategies: Simplifying vs. Optimizing,”Journal of Marketing Research, 12 (February), 60–67.
86.
WrightPeter, FriestadMarian, and DavidM. Boush (2005), “The Development of Marketplace Persuasion Knowledge in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults,”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 24 (Fall), 222–33.
