ArticleDigital health
Mobilizing social media users to become advertisers: Corporate hashtag campaigns as a public health concern.
Article in Digital health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Social media use and health risk behaviours in young people: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Pooled it
- How Food Marketing on Instagram Shapes Adolescents' Food Preferences: Online Randomized Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Trial
- Review
- Alcohol Promotion via User-Generated Content on Instagram and TikTok: A Content Analysis.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Article
- Characterising the extent and nature of digital food and beverage marketing in Singapore: a descriptive study.Public health nutrition · 2024Article
- The extent of energy drink marketing on Canadian social media.BMC public health · 2023Article
- A Scoping Review of Observational Studies on Food and Beverage Advertising on Social Media: A Public Health Perspective.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- COVID-Washing in US Food and Beverage Marketing on Twitter: Content Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Methodologies for Monitoring the Digital Marketing of Foods and Beverages Aimed at Infants, Children, and Adolescents (ICA): A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Turning users into 'unofficial brand ambassadors': marketing of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverages on TikTok.BMJ global health · 2022Article
- Interpreting the changeable meaning of hashtags: Toward the theorization of a model.Frontiers in sociology · 2022Article
- Associations between State-Level Obesity Rates, Engagement with Food Brands on Social Media, and Hashtag Usage.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Exploring the extent of digital food and beverage related content associated with a family-friendly event: a case study.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Fast food, beverage, and snack brands on social media in the United States: An examination of marketing techniques utilized in 2000 brand posts.Pediatric obesity · 2020Article
- Examining the Relationship between Youth-Targeted Food Marketing Expenditures and the Demographics of Social Media Followers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- #toolittletoolate: JUUL-related content on Instagram before and after self-regulatory action.PloS one · 2020Article
- Children and adolescents' exposure to food and beverage marketing in social media apps.Pediatric obesity · 2019Article
- From Apple to Werewolf: A content analysis of marketing for e-liquids on Instagram.Addictive behaviors · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveWith the growing popularity of social media, corporate marketers are increasingly launching hashtag campaigns to encourage consumers to create branded user-generated content on their behalves. If successful, these campaigns may expand the reach of harmful marketing messages and capitalize on peer-effects among adolescents. To shed light on these novel corporate campaigns, we performed a case study of the user-generated Instagram content created in response to a hashtag campaign promoting the quick-service restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).
methodsWe performed a content analysis of one week's worth of user-generated Instagram posts created with the hashtag #HowDoYouKFC between 24 April 2015-1 May 2015. Posts were coded to discern: (a) relevance to KFC as a brand and/or food; (b) themes in the post, (c) the content of images/videos, and (d) overall sentiment toward KFC. Posts that were deleted or made private during the study period were removed. Descriptive statistics were calculated to discern trends in post content.
resultsInstagram users created 196 posts with #HowDoYouKFC during the study period. After removing irrelevant and deleted/private posts, analysis of the 128 remaining user-generated posts revealed that 45% of posts were explicitly positive toward KFC and 39% lacked a specific stance or emotion related to KFC. Of the posts, 55% depicted KFC chicken and 65% included depictions of the brand hashtag on food packaging.
conclusionsFindings indicate that corporations are successfully converting individual social media users into positive advertisers for harmful products. Novel efforts are needed to counter corporate user-generated content campaigns.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.