ArticlePediatric obesity2020
Fast food, beverage, and snack brands on social media in the United States: An examination of marketing techniques utilized in 2000 brand posts.
Article in Pediatric obesity, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Impact of food, beverage, and alcohol brand marketing on consumptive behaviors and health in children and adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Article
- How healthy are food and beverage products promoted by TikTok influencers?Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- Article
- Digital food advertising exposure and perceptions among school-age children: a mixed-methods study in Kazakhstan.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Visual Attention to Food Content on Social Media: An Eye-Tracking Study Among Young Adults.Journal of eye movement research · 2025Article
- Review
- The use of social media to promote unhealthy food and beverage consumption among Indonesian children.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- Digital Marketing of Unhealthy Foods and Non-alcoholic Beverages to Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Review.Current developments in nutrition · 2025Review
- Dietary Habits, Obesity, and Bariatric Surgery: A Review of Impact and Interventions.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Food digital marketing on social media: trends and strategies of Brazil's leading meal delivery app.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Characterising the extent and nature of digital food and beverage marketing in Singapore: a descriptive study.Public health nutrition · 2024Article
- Estimating Young Children's Exposure to Food and Beverage Marketing on Mobile Devices.Current developments in nutrition · 2024Article
- Virtual Reality-Based Food and Beverage Marketing: Potential Implications for Young People of Color, Knowledge Gaps, and Future Research Directions.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Children's self-reported exposure to sugary beverage advertisements and association with intake across six countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeat cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Recreational screen time and obesity risk in Korean children: a 3-year prospective cohort study.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2024Article
- Evaluation of the Consumption of Junk Food Products and Lifestyle among Teenagers and Young Population from Romania.Nutrients · 2024Article
- "We know what we should be eating, but we don't always do that." How and why people eat the way they do: a qualitative study with rural australians.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Food marketing on digital platforms: what do teens see?Public health nutrition · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundExposure to food advertisements is associated with poor diet among youth, and food and beverage companies are increasingly advertising on social media sites that are popular among youth.
objectiveTo identify the prevalence of social media advertising among fast food, beverage, and snack companies and examine advertising techniques they use on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Vine.
methodsWe quantified the increase in the creation of social media accounts from 2007 to 2016 among 200 fast food, beverage, and snack brands from the United States. We conducted content analyses to examine the marketing themes and healthfulness of products featured in 2000 posts from a subset of 20 brands and used multilevel regression to assess associations between marketing themes (eg, adolescents socializing) and interactive tools (eg, hashtags).
resultsTwo hundred brands collectively managed 568 accounts in 2016. Content analyses revealed that unique social media features (eg, geo-tags) appeared in 74.5% (n = 1489) of posts, and 31.5% (n = 630) were interactive. Posts featuring adolescents were more likely to be interactive than posts featuring adults (P < 0.001). Two-thirds (67.9%; n = 362) of foods shown were unhealthy, and 61.2% (n = 435) of beverages were sugar sweetened.
conclusionsSocial media food advertising is pervasive and uses interactive tools to engage with users.
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Registered trials
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.