Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity: The Rudd Center and

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

STANMARK MeetingJennifer L. Harris

May 29, 2010

Project strategy

ObjectiveReduce harm associated

with food marketing to youth

Rudd Center roleUnderstand and inform

Child and adolescentexposure to food marketing

Impact of food marketingexposure

StanMark

Understand and inform• Exposure to food marketing

– Amount in all forms

– Differences among demographic groups

– Messages and other executional elements

– Changes over time

• Impact of food marketing– Harmful effects

– Potential for positive effects

– Broader health impact

Model of industry changeStanMark

Today

• Public opinions about food marketing

• Informing the public– Cereal FACTS

– Other initiatives

What do parents know?

Estimated food and beverage ads their kids see FrequencyTypes of adsTV ads 1-3 per dayLicensed characters and logo placements 2-4 per weekInternet ads and commercial websites < 1 per weekIn-school marketing < 1 per weekProduct categoriesUnhealthy food products ~1 per day (each)Healthy food products 1 per week (each)

Source: Speers et al., 2009. Rudd Center Public Opinion Poll

StanMark

Do they care?Concern about effects of media on children 1-10Sexual permissiveness 8.2Violence 8.1Materialism 8.0Thin models 7.8Alcohol use 7.5Bad eating habits 7.5Tobacco use 7.4Gender stereotypes 7.3Food marketing to kids 7.2Racial/ethnic stereotypes 7.1

Source: Speers et al., 2009

Changing public opinion

Awareness of unhealthy marketing

Perceived negative impact

Support for marketing restrictions

.11*** .53***

.01 (ns)

Source: Goren, Harris, Schwartz & Brownell, 2010

• 2-step process:StanMark

Focus groups with parents

“If these are better-for-you foods, what’s the worst list?”

“I don’t think anything has changed. I could name 30 commercials: Cookie Crisp, Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Puffs…same regular old commercials.”

“The art of manipulation. Like drugs for kids.”(Postopia website)

“If we don’t get the companies to know that we are unhappy… they aren’t going to change anything.”

“It’s a lie.” (nutrition claims)

Source: Ustjanauskas et al., 2010

Framing the issue

• Food marketing undermines parental authority– Why should food companies be allowed to

make parents’ jobs more difficult?

• Not about,– Limiting choices

– Regulating sale of foods

StanMark

Youth Marketing Index

• Scorecard of food marketing to youth– Positive and negative practices

– Brand and company level

• One new category per year– Cereals, fast food, and beverages

Objectives:

• Provide a comprehensive review of the nutrition quality and marketing of children’s cereals

• Increase awareness of current marketing practices among consumers, legislators, and the public health community

StanMark

Why cereals?

• Most marketing to children

• Disproportionately target children with worst products

• General Mills, Kellogg and PepsiCo CFBAI pledges

Marketing data

Television Internet In stores

Exposure Nielsen•Ad spending•TV ratings

comScore• Websites• 3rd party ads

Supermarket audit•Shelf space•Promotions

Content Analysis

•TV ads •Websites•Banner ads

• Product packaging

StanMark

Defining the target market

# of Brands # of Cereals Share of shelf

Child cereals 19 47 19%

Family cereals 27 71 25%

Adult Cereals 69 159 38%

Does not include: Hot cereals, baby cereals, diabetic cereals, generics

How do child brands compare?

Overall Nutrition

Sugar Fiber Sodium mg/100

Child 42 35% 5% 553

Family 50 25% 7% 509

Adult 58 20% 11% 348

StanMark

Has nutrition improved?

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2006 2009

Nut

ritio

n Sc

ore

(0-1

00)

ChildBrandsFamilyBrandsAdultBrands

Television advertising: 2008

0100200300400500600700800

2-5Years

6-11Years

12-17Years

Adults

Ads

per

yea

r Company

Adult

Family

Child

© The Nielsen Company

StanMark

Cereal websitesMonthly Unique

Visitors2-11 years

12-17 years

Visits/ month

Minutes/ visit

Millsberry 386,800 380,200 2.8 24

Postopia 154,400 110,300 2.0 15

AppleJacks 44,700 32,400 1.2 3

Reese’s Puffs 27,000 17,700 1.1 4

comScore Media Metrix Key Measures Report

The worst offendersStanMark

Nutrition rankingNPI Score Brand Company

Child-targeted television

Advergaming Website

3rd Party Advertising

34 Reese’s Puffs General Mills √ √ √36 Corn Pops Kellogg √ √ √36 Lucky Charms General Mills √ √ √36 Golden Grahams General Mills37 Cinnamon Toast Crunch General Mills √ √ √37 Cap’n Crunch Quaker √38 Count Chocula General Mills38 Trix General Mills √ √ √38 Froot Loops Kellogg √ √ √38 Smorz Kellogg38 Fruity or Cocoa Pebbles Post √ √ √39 Cocoa Puffs General Mills √ √40 Cookie Crisp General Mills √ √40 Apple Jacks Kellogg √ √ √40 Cookie Crunch Kellogg42 Disney High School Musical Kellogg43 Frosted Flakes Kellogg √ √44 Rice or Cocoa Krispies Kellogg44 Mini-Swirlz Kellogg44 Honey Nut O’s Cascadian Farm44 Honey Nut Cheerios General Mills √ √ √44 Waffle Crisp Post44 Chex General Mills46 Honey Smacks Kellogg46 Purely O’s Cascadian Farm46 Alpha Bits Post46 Golden Crisp Post46 Honey Comb Post √ √ √48 Raisin Bran Post50 Dora the Explorer General Mills50 Cinnamon Crunch Cascadian Farm

Child cereals averagenutrition

Family cereals averagenutrition

“Children like the taste of ready-to-eat cereals and are therefore more likely to eat breakfast.”

Letter to the editor of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association from Celeste Clark, Ph.D. Senior Vice President, Global Nutrition and Corporate Affairs, Kellogg Company and Susan J. Crockett, Ph.D., R.D. Vice President, Senior Technology Office,Health and Nutrition, General Mills

StanMark

Sugar vs. cereal consumption

01020304050607080

(n = 19) (n = 14) (n = 24) (n = 29)

High sugar Low sugar High sugar Low sugar

5-7 years 5-7 years 8-12 years 8-12 years

Gra

ms

Cereal (less sugar content) Sugar in cereal Sugar from packets

Recommended Serving Size = 30 grams

7943 106

51

113

91157

132

59

4774

78

32

3855 71

2359

54 46

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

High sugar Low sugar High sugar Low sugar

5-7 years 5-7 years 8-12 years 8-12 years

% o

f Tot

al C

alor

ies

Refined sugar (combined) Cereal (less sugar) content Milk Fresh Fruit Orange Juice

Calories by food groupStanMark

Impact of findings• Results were “news”

– Exclusives in Time magazine and ABC News– Covered in USA Today, AP, LA Times, Chicago

Tribune, Fox, NBC, CBS – 26,000+ unique visitors to cerealfacts.org

• Used by CT Attorney General to stop Smart Choices– Program discontinued immediately after launch

• Justify further attention to food marketing to children (FTC Forum, Dec 2009)

Impact (cont’d)• Cereal companies paid attention

– Kellogg discontinued immunity claim (one week later)

– General Mills PR campaign to promote “benefits of cereal”

– General Mills announced plans to reduce sugar in children’s cereals

– PepsiCo discontinued Cap’n Crunch website

– General Mills, Kellogg and Post agreed to Safe Space meetings with Rudd

StanMark

Upcoming projects

• Fast Food FACTS

• Marketing exposure studies– Product placements

– TV exposure by audience composition

• Impact studies– Advergaming

– Supermarket “game”

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Rudd Foundation

Marlene B. Schwartz Amy UstjanauskasKelly D. Brownell Andrew CheyneVishnudas Sarda Eliana BukofzerMegan E. Weinberg Lori DorfmanSarah Speers Hannah Byrnes-EnochJackie Thompson

Collaborators:StanMark

Thank you

www.cerealfacts.org

Measuring nutrition quality

• Nutrient profiling model (Rayner et al.)– Continuous measure

– Positive and negative elements

– Transparent algorithm

– Validated

– Used in UK and Australia/New Zealand

StanMark

Nutrition qualityUK FSA score range

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 -2 -4 -6Healthy

• Converted score

34 38 42 46 50 54 58 62 66 70 74 78 82

Healthy

ExamplesKellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats: 74Quaker Life: 54

GM Lucky Charms: 36StanMark

Ads on other websites

Web Publishers MonthlyAds Viewed

Millsberry.com and KidzWorld.com 61.7 mill

Nick.com, Neopets.com, NickJr.com, AddictingGames.com 44.6 mill

CartoonNetwork.com 40.4 mill

Disney.com 24.2 mill

comScore Ad Metrix Advertisers Report

In-store marketingDisplays per Store(4 wks)

Promotions per Store(4 wks)

Child Engagement

Features (per box)

Health and Ingredient

Claims (per box)

General Mills 9.0 35.1 1.4 3.2Kellogg 9.5 33.3 1.4 0.7Post 3.9 10.6 2.0 1.1Quaker 5.6 14.2 1.2 1.2Annie’s 0.0 4.2 0.8 4.2Barbara’s Bakery

3.0 5.8 0.6 2.6

Cascadian Farm

4.0 6.5 0.7 1.7

Kashi 0.0 2.9 0.4 2.3

StanMark

Other nutrition criteria

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Meet WICsugar limit

Meet UK childadvertisingguidelines

Contain fooddyes

BBBapproved*

Adult BrandsFamily BrandsChild Brands

Defining the target market

• Child cereals– Directly marketed to children

• Family cereals– Marketed to adults for child or family

consumption

• Adult cereals

StanMark