State of the Commercial Environment and Advertising to Children in Europe

I-Family (http://www.ifamilystudy.eu/), a joint European 7th Framework Programme research project with 12 European partners, aims at gaining an understanding of the interplay between barriers and drivers towards healthy food choices of young consumers when they move into adolescence. The study tries to assess why young Europeans make certain food and lifestyle choices and what their impact is on their lifelong health. This is explored from a focus on family, environment, physical activity, social, behavioral and genetic influences. The study is conducted among eight different European countries comprising up to 16 000 children. Within the spectrum of influences, the present presentation – based on a recent report from the I-Family study – aims to contribute to a better understanding of the media influence on adolescent’s health behavior. As food and beverage advertising has been widely recognized on having an effect in children ́s and adolescents food energy intake and as a risk factor for childhood obesity and diet-related non-communicable disease, a broader overview on new forms of marketing trough new technologies such as the internet, social media and other online media is needed. Whilst food promotion on TV has been a dominant research concern of consumer behavioral researchers and the effects of TV advertisement exposure have widely been explored, other media devices have been less in the research focus. Given that 75 % of the EU 27 households have Internet access, online marketing has become a new form to engage new consumers, particularly children and teenagers that spend an increasing amount of time surfing the web. Based on qualitative methodology, current online marketing strategies (internet, social media and other devices) from elven large food and soft drink brands targeting children are analyzed, mainly by looking at the corporate websites. Implications for policy are drawn.