ArticleBMJ global health2022
Turning users into 'unofficial brand ambassadors': marketing of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverages on TikTok.
Article in BMJ global health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations between dimensions of the social environment and cardiometabolic health outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2024Pooled it
- 'How I cook with no kitchen': An investigation of how #microapartment kitchens are depicted on TikTok.Nutrition and health · 2026Article
- Alcohol Promotion via User-Generated Content on Instagram and TikTok: A Content Analysis.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Article
- 'Everyone's a bit buzzed, why not share that': exploring alcohol-related user-generated content among young people in Victoria, Australia.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Digital marketing by big bubble tea brands in China in 2023: a content analysis.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Analysing celebrity and influencer marketing of food and beverages to adolescents on Instagram.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Parents' Perceptions of Claims on Packaged Commercial Toddler Foods: A Qualitative Study.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Article
- Would Reducing Children's Exposure to Food Advertising Prevent Unhealthy Weight Gain?Current obesity reports · 2025Review
- A scoping review of children's and parents' attitudes to and awareness of digital food marketing.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Unhealthy food advertising on social media: policy lessons from the Australian Ad Observatory.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- How TikTok Influencers Disclose Food and Beverage Brand Partnerships: Descriptive Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Digital Marketing of Unhealthy Foods and Non-alcoholic Beverages to Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Review.Current developments in nutrition · 2025Review
- Latinx and White Adolescents' Preferences for Latinx-Targeted Celebrity and Noncelebrity Food Advertisements: Experimental Survey Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Article
- Children, young people and the Commercial Determinants of Health.Health promotion international · 2024Article
- Navigating the online food environment: policy pathways for promoting food access, transparency, and healthy food choices online.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionTikTok has over one billion monthly users and is particularly popular among children. We examined the (1) use of owned media by major unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage brands on TikTok and (2) nature of branded hashtag challenges instigated by such brands and the user-generated content created in response.
methodsWe assessed the (1) content of all videos posted on the accounts of 16 top food and non-alcoholic beverage brands (based on global brand share) as at 30 June 2021, and (2) content and sentiment of a sample of brand-relevant user-generated content created in response to branded hashtag challenges instigated by these brands.
resultsOf 539 videos posted by brands, 60% were posted in the first half of 2021. The most common marketing strategies were branding (87% of videos), product images (85%), engagement (31%) and celebrities/influencers (25%). Engagement included instigation of branded hashtag challenges that encouraged creation of user-generated content featuring brands' products, brands' videos and/or branded effects. The total collective views of user-generated content from single challenges ranged from 12.7 million to 107.9 billion. Of a sample of 626 brand-relevant videos generated in response to these challenges, 96% featured branding, 68% product images and 41% branded effects. Most portrayed a positive (73%) or neutral/unclear (25%) sentiment, with few negative (3%).
conclusionUnhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage brands are using TikTok to market brands and products via their own accounts and to encourage users to create and share their own content that features branding and product images. Given TikTok's popularity among children, this study supports the need for policies that protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing on social networking platforms.
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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.