Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Mar 10, 2021
Date Accepted: Sep 12, 2021
How food marketing on Instagram shapes adolescents’ food preferences: An online randomized trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Worldwide 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. 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.
Objective:
This study examined whether adolescents could identify food companies’ Instagram posts as advertisements, and the extent to which Instagram versus traditional food ads shape adolescents’ preferences.
Methods:
In Part 1, participants ages 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 (e.g., print; online banner ad), and the other ad was selected from Instagram, but we removed the Instagram logo, comments, and “likes.” In Part 2, participants were randomized to rate food ads that ostensibly originated from: 1) Instagram (i.e., we photoshopped the Instagram logo, “likes,” and comments 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.
Results:
In 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 (i.e., trendiness, P=0.001; artistic appeal, P=0.001; likeability, P=0.001).
Conclusions:
Adolescents 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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