Food marketing in South Africa by influencers on social media
Lisa Andrea Deyce, Tamryn Frank, Alice Scaria Khan, Rina Elizabeth SwartAbstract
Objective:
Childhood obesity has been linked to social media marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages. Apart from targeted marketing practices on social media, food and beverage companies also make use of social media influencers to market their products, blurring the lines between organic content and marketing content. This study aimed to investigate the types of commercial food and beverage products found in posts by influencers on YouTube and TikTok, as well as the marketing techniques used to promote these products.
Design:
Cross-sectional analysis. Public posts by nineteen influencers were downloaded and analysed for branded products. Nutritional information for these products was collected and analysed using the proposed South African nutrient profiling model.
Setting:
Public profiles of nineteen influencers on YouTube and TikTok.
Results:
This study found that 52 % of posts contained branded food and beverages, 80 % of posts that contained marketing also contained at least one unhealthy product that would carry a warning label for being high in either sugar, saturated fat, Na or non-sugar sweeteners. Of the marketed posts, only 8 % were labelled as containing marketing. The most used marketing techniques were references to children, such as cartoons.
Conclusions:
The study proposes that mandatory government-led regulations on the marketing of unhealthy products to children should be implemented, such as prohibiting posts featuring unhealthy products in child-directed content and mandatory disclosure of marketing if the influencer is getting paid for posting unhealthy products. These regulations should include social media and cover children up to the age of 18 years old.