Trial reportJournal of medical Internet research2021
How Food Marketing on Instagram Shapes Adolescents' Food Preferences: Online Randomized Trial.
Trial report in Journal of medical Internet research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Social Media and Children's and Adolescents' Diets: A Systematic Review of the Underlying Social and Physiological Mechanisms.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Pooled it
- Article
- How healthy are food and beverage products promoted by TikTok influencers?Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- Mitigating the burden of dental caries among adolescents and young adults by targeting social media influencers.Frontiers in oral health · 2026Article
- Examining the Effect of Virtual Reality-Based Fast-Food Marketing on Eating-Related Outcomes in Young Adults: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Analysing celebrity and influencer marketing of food and beverages to adolescents on Instagram.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Would Reducing Children's Exposure to Food Advertising Prevent Unhealthy Weight Gain?Current obesity reports · 2025Review
- Rewriting the Narrative: Advancing Justice and Equity in the U.S. Food System.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- The use of social media to promote unhealthy food and beverage consumption among Indonesian children.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- A scoping review of children's and parents' attitudes to and awareness of digital food marketing.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Examining differences in exposure to digital marketing of unhealthy foods reported by Canadian children and adolescents in two policy environments.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- Latinx and White Adolescents' Preferences for Latinx-Targeted Celebrity and Noncelebrity Food Advertisements: Experimental Survey Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- 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
- Nigerian adolescents' exposure to fast food marketing via Instagram.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Food marketing on digital platforms: what do teens see?Public health nutrition · 2024Article
- Genetic associations with neural reward responsivity to food cues in children.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- Humor and the willingness to buy healthy food posted on Instagram.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Food Advertisement and Dietary Choices in Adolescents: An Overview of Recent Studies.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- The food and beverage cues in digital marketing model: special considerations of social media, gaming, and livestreaming environments for food marketing and eating behavior research.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWorldwide obesity rates have prompted 16 countries to enact policies to reduce children's exposure to unhealthy food marketing, but few policies address online advertising practices or protect adolescents from being targeted. Given adolescents spend so much time online, it is critical to understand how persuasive Instagram food advertisements (ads) are compared with traditional food ads. To strengthen online food marketing policies, more evidence is needed on whether social media ads are more persuasive than other types of ads in shaping adolescents' preferences.
objectiveThis study examined whether adolescents could identify food companies' Instagram posts as ads, and the extent to which Instagram versus traditional food ads shape adolescents' preferences.
methodsIn Part 1, participants aged 13-17 years (N=832) viewed 8 pairs of ads and were asked to identify which ads originated from Instagram. One ad in each pair was selected from traditional sources (eg, print; online banner ad), and the other ad was selected from Instagram, but we removed the Instagram frame-which includes the logo, comments, and "likes." In Part 2, participants were randomized to rate food ads that ostensibly originated from (1) Instagram (ie, we photoshopped the Instagram frame onto ads); or (2) traditional sources. Unbeknownst to participants, half of the ads in their condition originated from Instagram and half originated from traditional sources.
resultsIn Part 1, adolescents performed worse than chance when asked to identify Instagram ads (P<.001). In Part 2, there were no differences on 4 of 5 outcomes in the "labeled ad condition." In the "unlabeled ad condition," however, they preferred Instagram ads to traditional ads on 3 of 5 outcomes (ie, trendiness, P=.001; artistic appeal, P=.001; likeability, P=.001).
conclusionsAdolescents incorrectly identified traditional ads as Instagram posts, suggesting the artistic appearance of social media ads may not be perceived as marketing. Further, the mere presence of Instagram features caused adolescents to rate food ads more positively than ads without Instagram features.
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Registered trials
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