Posts tagged Rudd Center

Cereal FACTS 2012: A Spoonful of Progress in a Bowl Full of Unhealthy Marketing to Kids

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12 months ago
by admin in

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series that will highlight the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work in Latino communities across the country.

Cereal companies have improved the nutritional quality of most cereals marketed directly to children, but they also have increased advertising to children for many of their least nutritious products, according to a report by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.

Spending on Spanish-language TV advertising for all cereals has more than doubled, and Hispanic children’s exposure to those ads has tripled. In addition, cereal companies launched new Spanish-language TV campaigns for seven brands, including Froot Loops and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

The Cereal FACTS report quantifies changes in the nutritional quality of cereals and children’s exposure to cereal marketing after companies pledged to reduce marketing of unhealthy products to children.

“Children still get one spoonful of sugar in every three spoonfuls of cereal. These products are not nutritious options that children should consume every day,” said lead researcher Jennifer L. Harris, director of marketing initiatives at the Rudd Center.

The new Cereal FACTS report, which was supported by grants from RWJF and the Rudd Foundation, documents changes in industry practices since the first study in 2009. Additional findings include:

Companies increased child-targeted advertising for some of their least nutritious products:

  • Children viewed more TV ads for seven of 14 child-targeted brands, including Reese’s Puffs, Froot Loops, and Pebbles.
  • Post launched a new Pebbles advergame website, and General Mills launched new sites for Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
  • Kellogg more than doubled banner advertising on children’s websites, such as Nickelodeon.com and Neopets.com, for its child-targeted brands. General Mills also increased banner advertising for four child-targeted brands, including Honey Nut Cheerios and Lucky Charms.
  • Kellogg introduced the first food company advergame for mobile phones and tablets targeted to children for Apple Jacks.

Changes for the better
Companies improved the nutritional quality of most cereals marketed to children:

  • Overall nutritional quality improved for 13 of the 14 brands advertised to children. Of the 22 different varieties of these cereals available in both 2008 and 2011, 45 percent had less sodium, 32 percent had less sugar, and 23 percent had more fiber. General Mills improved the nutritional quality of all its child-targeted brands.

Companies reduced child-targeted advertising for some products:

  • Millsberry.com and Postopia.com, the two most-visited children’s advergame sites, were discontinued. Due to the elimination of Millsberry.com, General Mills decreased banner advertising on children’s websites by 43 percent.
  • Children viewed fewer TV ads for seven of 14 child-targeted brands, including Corn Pops and Honeycomb.

More of the same
Companies continue to aggressively market their least nutritious products directly to children:

  • Companies do offer more nutritious and lower-sugar cereals for children, like regular Cheerios and Frosted Mini-Wheats, but they are marketed to parents, not children.

“While cereal companies have made small improvements to the nutrition of their child-targeted cereals, these cereals are still far worse than the products they market to adults. They have 56 percent more sugar, half as much fiber, and 50 percent more sodium,” said co-author Marlene Schwartz, deputy director of the Rudd Center. “The companies know how to make a range of good-tasting cereals that aren’t loaded with sugar and salt. Why can’t they help parents out and market these directly to children instead?”

The full report and tools for consumers and researchers are available at www.cerealfacts.org. Report findings specific to Hispanic and black youth can be found on page 27 of the full report.

Follow the Rudd Center and the conversation on Twitter at @YaleRuddCenter with the hashtag #cerealfacts.

Sugary Drinks 101 for Latinos (Part 2)

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1 year ago
by admin in , ,

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series that will highlight the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work in Latino communities across the country.

SaludToday Guest Blog: An Interview with Jennifer Harris

Jennifer Harris

Young people are being exposed to a massive amount of marketing for sugary drinks, such as full-calorie sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks and fruit drinks, according to a new study from the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. The study is the most comprehensive analysis of sugary drink nutrition and marketing ever conducted. The data indicate that the companies involved target young people, especially Black and Latino youth.

In an interview, Jennifer Harris, director of marketing initiatives for the Rudd Center, details exactly how beverage companies are marketing to Latino youth, how sugary drinks contribute to childhood obesity and what parents need to know to ensure their children and teens are getting the nutrition they need.

The report details how marketers see Latino and Black youth as future sources of growth. Can you explain that finding?
The best place to find this kind of information is company annual reports. We found that both Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper/Snapple group have said in their annual reports that the Latino market and Latino youth are important future growth opportunities for them.

On one hand, it’s a good thing that they’re recognizing the importance of this consumer. On the other hand, these are very unhealthy products that are clearly contributing to obesity, and no one should be consuming more of these. So making [Latinos and Blacks] a growth market is a public health issue.

What about the marketing that has shifted from traditional radio and TV to newer forms of media like smartphone apps?
Coca-Cola really is the extreme case. It just received an award for marketer of the year for innovative marketing practices. It is less on traditional TV than other brands. But it is the highest advertiser for product placements on TV and radio. It has the most youth visitors to its website and offers the My Coke Rewards program, which is a website that basically gives rewards for purchasing the product. A frequent drinker program of sorts.

On Facebook, it has more followers or likes than any other brand of any sort, not just food brands. It also does mobile marketing, and not many beverage companies do. Its iPhone apps are clearly youth targeted—for example, a spin-the-bottle and magic Coke bottle apps. Just like the Magic 8 ball, you ask it questions and you’ll get an answer from the Coke bottle when you shake it. It’s entertaining stuff, which is all designed to get people to love the Coke brand.

Coke is the extreme example of this, but many other brands are expanding their marketing to include similar things.

So how do we educate parents to understand what daily beverage consumption is considered healthy?
There’s no reason that any child should ever drink a product that has added sugar. The most important thing is to check the label to see if there’s added sugar. The sad thing is that we found very few products that had low levels of added sugar. Most of them had very high levels, and a lot of these products had more sugar than a child should be drinking in an entire day in just one serving. Children should be drinking water, low-fat or non-fat milk and small amounts of juice. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 7 ounces for a young child, and I think its 12 ounces for an older child.

There’s no reason that they should be drinking sugary beverages because, more than any other food product, there’s a lot of research to show that drinking these products directly contributes to obesity.

Sugary Drinks 101 for Latinos (Part 1)

1
1 year ago
by admin in , ,

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series that will highlight the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work in Latino communities across the country.

SaludToday Guest Blog: An Interview with Jennifer Harris

Jennifer Harris

Young people are being exposed to a massive amount of marketing for sugary drinks, such as full-calorie sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks and fruit drinks, according to a new study from the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. The study is the most comprehensive analysis of sugary drink nutrition and marketing ever conducted. The data indicate that the companies involved target young people, especially Black and Latino youth.

In an interview, Jennifer Harris, director of marketing initiatives for the Rudd Center, details exactly how beverage companies are marketing to Latino youth, how sugary drinks contribute to childhood obesity and what parents need to know to ensure their children and teens are getting the nutrition they need.

How are marketers specifically targeting Black and Latino youth with sugary drink ads?
We don’t know for sure that the marketers are targeting anyone because we don’t have access to their internal strategy documents. So what we do is look at the data and ask a couple of questions. We ask if they’re using techniques that appeal more to one group or another. For example, Sprite has a step-and-jerk dance competition, which is popular among Black, inner-city youth; that would be an indicator they’re targeting Black youth. Or any kind of Spanish-language advertising would be obvious that they’re targeting a Latino audience.

We know how many Black or Latino youth are seeing different advertising, so we compare that to how many ads white youth are seeing, and the data show us what products are reaching disproportionately more Black or Latino youth.

How are sugary drink companies advertising on Latino-focused media?
There were really only a handful of companies that advertise on Spanish-language TV, and Coca-Cola was clearly the leader. Over a third of the advertisements that Latino youth saw were for Coca-Cola. 5-hour ENERGY drink was also big.

The other thing that we saw was how more and more sugary drink companies are buying ads on Latino media. They spent about almost 50 percent more on Spanish-language media in 2010 as they did in 2008. So there’s an upward trend going on there.

Another thing about Spanish-language media was that Latino preschoolers watch a lot more Spanish-language TV than older children, so those preschoolers are actually seeing more of these ads than somewhat older children or teens. That’s a concern. And then on Spanish-language radio, again, Coca-Cola was the biggest advertiser there as well as Gatorade and Dr Pepper.

The report addresses Spanish-language media. Was there an evaluation done of English-language media that target Latino audiences, such as MTV Tr3s or similar outlets?
Nielsen classifies those cable networks as Spanish-language as well.

One surprising detail in the report is about Sunny Delight. Talk about the findings specific to Sunny D.
Sunny D is basically a fruit drink with added vitamin C, which is not especially important according to most of the nutritionists we spoke to. It has really high sodium levels—the highest of any of the fruit drinks. It also has artificial sweetener, so it has sugar plus artificial sweetener, and what that does is just really make the beverage sweet. This is a concern for children because everyone prefers the sweet taste, but it’s also something you become accustomed to. The sweeter the products you consume, the more you like that sweet taste.

Sunny D had artificial sweeteners, 18-20 grams of sugar per 8 ounces and more sodium then any of the other fruit drinks. It’s definitely the worst product that’s marketed to kids, but it does have that health halo.

We also did research with parents, asking them how healthy they think that product is. Included were Latino, non-Latino and Black parents. They all thought that product was healthy.

So where is the disconnect?
It’s probably because [the manufacturer] markets the drink as a good source of Vitamin C, and it looks like orange juice.

Another thing related to fruit drinks that we found happening a lot on websites and a little bit on TV is that Kool-Aid is being marketed to parents as cheaper than soda, Latino parents specifically. While that’s true, kids shouldn’t be drinking it.

Sugary Beverage Companies Are Targeting Hispanic Kids, Teens

0
1 year ago
by admin in ,

Children and teens—especially Hispanics—are exposed to a substantial amount of marketing for sugary drinks, such as full-calorie sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks and fruit drinks, according to a new report from the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.

The report indicates that sugary beverages are specifically targeting Hispanic and black youth:

  • Beverage companies have indicated that they view Hispanics and blacks as a source of future growth for sugary drink product sales.
  • Marketing on Spanish TV is growing. From 2008 to 2010, Hispanic children saw 49% more ads for sugary drinks and energy drinks, and teens saw 99% more ads.
  • Hispanic preschoolers saw more ads for Coca-Cola Classic, Kool-Aid, 7 Up and Sunny D than Hispanic older children and teens did.

The report recommends ways that parents can make a difference, as well as indicates that beverage companies must change their harmful marketing practices.

Get the full report here.

More from Report: Black, Latino Kids See More Fast-Food Ads

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2 years ago
by admin in ,

The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity’s new report, Fast Food FACTS: Evaluating Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing to Youth, includes more information about fast-food ads seen by Latino and black youths.

As reported by the Multi-American blog:

There is considerable evidence that exposure to marketing for fast food is even higher among African American and Hispanic youth. African American youth view almost 50% more TV advertisements for fast food than do white children and adolescents. Although differences in advertising exposure can be attributed in large part to the greater amount of time that African American and Hispanic youth spend watching television, fast food restaurants appear to disproportionately target African Americans and Hispanics with their marketing efforts. For example, fast food ads appear more frequently during African American-targeted TV programming than during general audience programming.

Fast food advertisements are also prevalent on Spanish-language television networks, comprising nearly half of all ads. Billboards for fast food restaurants appear significantly more often in low-income African American and Latino neighborhoods.

Fast food restaurants located in poorer African American neighborhoods also promote less-healthful foods and have more in-store advertisements compared to restaurants in more affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods.

Multi-American ends its blog with this statement relating to Southern California:

“The scarcity of healthy food options in low-income neighborhoods – a phenomenon dubbed “food deserts” – continues to be a problem in portions of Los Angeles County that are predominantly Latino and African-American. Community activists in South L.A. succeeded in obtaining a temporary moratorium on the development of new stand-alone fast food restaurants, which expired recently; community groups and city officials are still trying to work out a permanent solution.”

Fast Food Restaurants Dish Up Unhealthy Marketing to Youth

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2 years ago
by admin in ,
Study: Fast-food companies have upped marketing to youths (Getty Images via AOL News).

Study: Fast-food companies have upped marketing to youths (Getty Images via AOL News).

Children as young as age 2 are seeing more fast food ads than ever, and restaurants rarely offer healthy kids’ meal choices, according to a new study by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.

The new evaluation, the most comprehensive study of fast food nutrition and marketing ever conducted, studied marketing efforts of 12 of the nation’s largest fast food chains, and examined the calories, fat, sugar and sodium in more than 3,000 kids’ meal combinations and menu items. The study is being presented today at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting.

Some alarming findings include:

  • Out of 3,039 possible kids’ meal combinations, only 12 meet the researchers’ nutrition criteria for preschoolers. Only 15 meet nutrition criteria for older children.
  • At least 30% of the calories in menu items purchased by children and teens are from sugar/fat.
  • Most fast food restaurants have at least one healthy side dish and beverage option for a kids’ meal, but the healthy options are rarely offered as the default.
  • Even though McDonald’s and Burger King show only healthy sides and beverages in child-targeted ads, the restaurants automatically serve french fries with kids’ meals at least 86% of the time.

Companies also target Hispanic and African American youth.

Hispanic preschoolers see 290 Spanish-language fast food TV ads each year. McDonald’s is responsible for 25% of young people’s exposure to Spanish-language fast food advertising.

“Our results show that the fast food industry’s promises to market less unhealthy food to young people are not enough,” said study co-author Kelly Brownell, Ph.D., director and co-founder of the Rudd Center. “If they truly wish to be considered partners in public health, fast food restaurants need to drastically reduce the total amount of marketing that children and teens see for fast food and the iconic brands that sell it.”

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