To describe the promotion of food and beverage and marketing strategies used by online food delivery services (OFDS) in a social media platform before and during the pandemic in Brazil.

Publicly available data were extracted from OFDS Instagram accounts. Posts published 6 months immediately before and after the first case of COVID-19 in Brazil were randomly sampled. Two independent authors coded the posts’ content. Food and beverage items featured in posts were classified according to the NOVA food system classification. Marketing strategies were coded according to protocols from previous studies.

Top three OFDS Instagram accounts in Brazil.

Posts published in the period studied (n 304).

During the pandemic, the proportion of posts featuring at least one food item decreased from 71·6 % to 40·2 %, and the proportion of ultra-processed foods decreased from 57·6 % to 27·9 %. Before the pandemic, the most widely used marketing strategies were branding elements (80·7 %), product imagery (unbranded) (48·9 %) and partnerships/sponsorship (35·2 %). While during the pandemic, branding elements (62·2 %) continued to be the most applied, but were followed by the use of videos/graphics interchange format/boomerangs (34·1 %) and corporate social responsibility (31·7 %). The most frequent COVID-19 marketing strategies were ‘social responsibility in the pandemic’ (30·5 %), ‘combatting the pandemic’ (28·0 %) and ‘accelerating digitalisation’ (20·7 %).

OFDS advertisements on a social media platform placed less emphasis on food items, but improved the nutritional quality of foods and beverages featured in posts. A COVID-washing approach was highlighted, especially through the use of social responsibility marketing during the pandemic.

To compare and evaluate the prevalence of food and beverage marketing on the livestreaming platforms Twitch, Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming, as well as examine growth of food and beverage marketing on these platforms over a 17-month period of data collection.

Cross-sectional data were analysed across three livestreaming platforms and six food and beverage categories: alcohol, candy, energy drinks, snacks, sodas and restaurants.

Stream titles of livestreamed events as well as corresponding hours watched on Twitch, Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming.

None.

There were significant differences between the use of food and beverage brand mentions in stream titles across all three studied platforms (P < 0·05), as well as hours watched across platforms (P < 0·05). Energy drinks dominated food and beverage brand mentions across platforms, followed by restaurants, soda and snacks. All platforms demonstrated growth over the 17-month data collection period. Post-hoc analyses revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted both immediate and sustained growth across all platforms, with the greatest impact observed on the Twitch platform.

Food and beverage marketing as measured through stream titles is widely prevalent across the three most popular livestreaming platforms, particularly for energy drinks. Food marketing on these platforms experienced growth over the past 17 months which was accelerated substantially by the COVID-19 pandemic. Future work should assess the sustained impact this growth may have on marketing practices and eating behaviour.

The objective of this research was to determine if, based on gender, adolescents were exposed to different marketing techniques that promoted food and beverages over social media.

A secondary analysis of adolescent boy (n 26) and girl (n 36) exposures (n 139) to food and beverage marketing was conducted. Mann–Whitney U and Fisher’s exact tests were conducted to compare the number, healthfulness and the marketing techniques of exposures viewed by boys and girls.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Sixty-two adolescents aged 12–16 years.

Boys and girls were exposed to similar volumes of food marketing instances (median = 2 for both boys and girls, Mann–Whitney U = 237, P = 0·51) per 10-min period of social media use. More girls viewed products that were excessive in total fat compared to boys (67 % v. 35 %, P = 0·02). Boys were more likely to view instances of food marketing featuring a male as the dominant user (50 % v. 22 %, P = 0·03), appeals to achievement (42 % v. 17 %, P = 0·04), an influencer (42 % v. 14 %, P = 0·02) and appeals to athleticism (35 % v. 11 %, P = 0·03), whereas girls were more likely to view instances of food marketing featuring quizzes, surveys or polls (25 % v. 0 %, P = 0·01).

Food and beverage companies utilise marketing techniques that differ based on gender. More research examining the relationship between digital food and beverage marketing and gender is required to inform the development of gender-sensitive policies aimed at protecting adolescents from unhealthy food marketing.

The current study focuses on how adolescent girls in urban Indonesia accept technology in a social media (SM) campaign to promote healthy eating habits.

The study was a qualitative evaluation of the online campaign. In-depth interviews using semi-structured interview guidelines and focus group discussions were used to collect data. Data were analysed using a general inductive approach to provide simple and straightforward answers to our study questions.

The study was conducted in two urban areas in Indonesia: Jakarta and Jogjakarta.

Adolescent girls aged 16–19 years.

The SM campaign was perceived as beneficial for increasing participants’ knowledge. The campaign helped increase participants’ awareness of healthy diets and the health risks of unhealthy diets as well as increase their motivation to change their behaviour and avoid foods containing salt, sugar and excess fat. The participants perceived information from the online campaign as complete and trustworthy. Instagram was cited as the easiest platform to use, while the website was cited as having the most complete information. YouTube provided the best viewing experience but was considered a data-heavy platform. The barriers to change were perceptions of taste, limited choices for healthy but affordable ingredients and family-related factors.

The online nutrition campaign was well accepted by Indonesian urban adolescent females and motivated them to act to protect their health. Future nutrition-related SM campaigns aimed at this demographic should focus on platforms with the greatest benefit and ease of use.

To test the feasibility of a browser extension to estimate the exposure of adolescents to (un)healthy food and beverage advertisements on Facebook and the persuasive techniques used to market these foods and beverages.

A Chrome browser extension (AdHealth) was developed to automatically collect advertisements seen by participants on their personal Facebook accounts. Information was extracted and sent to a web server by parsing the Document Object Model tree representation of Facebook web pages. Key information retrieved included the advertisement type seen and duration of each ad sighting. The WHO-Europe Nutrient Profile Model was used to classify the healthiness of products advertised as permitted (healthy) or not permitted (unhealthy) to be advertised to children.

Auckland, New Zealand.

Thirty-four Facebook users aged 16–18 years.

The browser extension retrieved 4973 advertisements from thirty-four participants, of which 204 (4 %) were food-related, accounting for 1·1 % of the exposure duration. Of those food advertisements, 98 % were classified as not permitted, and 33·7 and 31·9 %, respectively, of those featured promotional characters or premium offers. The mean rate of exposure to not permitted food was 4·8 (sd = 2·5) advertisements per hour spent on Facebook.

Using a Chrome extension to monitor exposure to unhealthy food and beverage advertisements showed that the vast majority of advertisements were for unhealthy products, despite numerous challenges to implementation. Further efforts are needed to develop tools for use across other social media platforms and mobile devices, and policies to protect young people from digital food advertising.

To examine the feasibility of using social media to assess the consumer nutrition environment by comparing sentiment expressed in Yelp reviews with information obtained from a direct observation audit instrument for grocery stores.

Trained raters used the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (NEMS-S) in 100 grocery stores from July 2015 to March 2016. Yelp reviews were available for sixty-nine of these stores and were retrieved in February 2017 using the Yelp Application Program Interface. A sentiment analysis was conducted to quantify the perceptions of the consumer nutrition environment in the review text. Pearson correlation coefficients (ρ) were used to compare NEMS-S scores with Yelp review text on food availability, quality, price and shopping experience.

Detroit, Michigan, USA.

None.

Yelp reviews contained more comments about food availability and the overall shopping experience than food price and food quality. Negative sentiment about food prices in Yelp review text and the number of dollar signs on Yelp were positively correlated with observed food prices in stores (ρ=0·413 and 0·462, respectively). Stores with greater food availability were rated as more expensive on Yelp. Other aspects of the food store environment (e.g. overall quality and shopping experience) were captured only in Yelp.

While Yelp cannot replace in-person audits for collecting detailed information on the availability, quality and cost of specific food items, Yelp holds promise as a cost-effective means to gather information on the overall cost, quality and experience of food stores, which may be relevant for nutrition outcomes.

To assess the relationship between exposure to social media food messages and self-reported adolescent eating outcomes (including food intake, perceived norms and food literacy).

A cross-sectional survey was used to assess reported exposure to core and non-core food messages (including marketing messages) on social media, as well as reported food intake, perceived norms, food literacy, attitudes, self-regulation, among others.

18 secondary schools across Flanders, Belgium.

1002 adolescents 11–19 years of age.

Self-reported exposure to food marketing and overall food messages on social media was positively associated with eating attitudes, behaviours, perceived norms and food literacy among adolescents. Interestingly, the relationship between food exposure and intake was shaped differently depending on food type; descriptive norms mediated the positive relationship between non-core food social media exposure and non-core food intake (e.g. indirect effect estimate on self-reported sweets consumption is 0·005, se 0·002, P < 0·01), while food literacy mediated the positive relationship between core food social media exposure and core food intake (e.g. indirect effect estimate on self-reported vegetable consumption is 0·01, se 0·003, P < 0·000).

This study highlights the significance of social media in relation to adolescent eating. There is an opportunity for health professionals to use social media in the promotion of core food among adolescents. We call for relevant policy actions to regulate the marketing of non-core food to adolescents on social media.

To assess viewer engagement of a food advertising campaign on the live streaming platform Twitch.tv, a social media platform that allows creators to live stream content and communicate with their audience in real time.

Observational analysis of chat comments across the Twitch platform containing the word ‘Wendy’s’ or ‘Wendys’ during a 5-day ad campaign compared with two 5-day non-campaign time periods. Comments were categorised as positive, negative or neutral in how their sentiment pertained to the brand Wendy’s.

Twitch chatrooms.

None.

There were significantly more chatroom messages related to the Wendy’s brand during the campaign period. When considering all messages, the proportion of messages was statistically different (x2 = 1417·41, P < 0·001) across time periods, with a higher proportion of neutral and positive messages and a lower proportion of negative messages during the campaign compared with the comparison periods. Additionally, the proportion of negative messages following the campaign was lower than before the campaign. When considering only positive and negative messages, the proportion of messages was statistically different (x2 = 366·38, P < 0·001) across each time period with a higher proportion of positive messages and a lower proportion of negative messages during the campaign when compared with the other time periods. Additionally, there was a higher proportion of positive messages and a lower portion of negative messages following the campaign when compared with before the campaign.

This study demonstrates the impact and sustained impact of a fast-food brand ad campaign on brand engagement on the live streaming platform Twitch.

To explore the use of references to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the marketing strategies used on Facebook to promote ultra-processed products.

A search for Facebook accounts of ultra-processed products was performed using a master list of products commercialised in two online supermarkets in Uruguay. For each of the identified Facebook accounts, all the content posted from the confirmation of the first cases of COVID-19 in Uruguay, on 14 March 2020, until 1 July 2020 was recorded. Posts including mentions to COVID-19, social distancing measures or their consequences were identified and analysed using content analysis.

Uruguay, Latin America.

A total of 135 Facebook accounts were identified, which generated a total of 1749 posts related to ultra-processed products, from which 35 % included references to COVID-19. The majority of the posts included references to prevention measures. Approximately one-third of the posts included proposals of activities to do at home, most of which were linked to a healthy lifestyle. Tips for coping with quarantine and descriptions of the charitable work undertaken by brands were also identified.

Results from the present work provide evidence that industries of ultra-processed products have taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to promote their products, create positive associations with the brands and improve their image as part of their digital marketing strategies.

Social media analytics (SMA) has a track record in business research. The utilisation in nutrition research is unknown, despite social media being populated with real-time eating behaviours. This rapid review aimed to explore the use of SMA in nutrition research with the investigation of dietary behaviours.

The review was conducted according to rapid review guidelines by WHO and the National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools. Five databases of peer-reviewed, English language studies were searched using the keywords ‘social media’ in combination with ‘data analytics’ and ‘food’ or ‘nutrition’ and screened for those with general population health using SMA on public domain, social media data between 2014 and 2020.

The review identified 34 studies involving SMA in the investigation of dietary behaviours. Nutrition topics included population nutrition health investigations, alcohol consumption, dieting and eating out of the home behaviours. All studies involved content analysis with evidence of surveillance and engagement. Twitter was predominant with data sets in tens of millions. SMA tools were observed in data discovery, collection and preparation, but less so in data analysis. Approximately, a third of the studies involved interdisciplinary collaborations with health representation and only two studies involved nutrition disciplines. Less than a quarter of studies obtained formal human ethics approval.

SMA in nutrition research with the investigation of dietary behaviours is emerging, nevertheless, if consideration is taken with technological capabilities and ethical integrity, the future shows promise at a broad population census level and as a scoping tool or complementary, triangulation instrument.

To assess the effectiveness of the self-regulatory Canadian Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CAI) in limiting advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages on children’s preferred websites in Canada.

Syndicated Internet advertising exposure data were used to identify the ten most popular websites for children (aged 2–11 years) and determine the frequency of food/beverage banner and pop-up ads on these websites from June 2015 to May 2016. Nutrition information for advertised products was collected and their nutrient content per 100 g was calculated. Nutritional quality of all food/beverage ads was assessed using the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and UK Nutrient Profile Models (NPM). Nutritional quality of CAI and non-CAI company ads was compared using χ2 analyses and independent t tests.

About 54 million food/beverage ads were viewed on children’s preferred websites from June 2015 to May 2016. Most (93·4 %) product ads were categorized as excessive in fat, Na or free sugars as per the PAHO NPM and 73·8 % were deemed less healthy according to the UK NPM. CAI-company ads were 2·2 times more likely (OR; 99 % CI) to be excessive in at least one nutrient (2·2; 2·1, 2·2, P<0·001) and 2·5 times more likely to be deemed less healthy (2·5; 2·5, 2·5, P<0·001) than non-CAI ads. On average, CAI-company product ads also contained (mean difference; 99 % CI) more energy (141; 141·1, 141·4 kcal, P<0·001, r=0·55), sugar (18·2; 18·2, 18·2 g, P<0·001, r=0·68) and Na (70·0; 69·7, 70·0 mg, P<0·001, r=0·23) per 100 g serving than non-CAI ads.

The CAI is not limiting unhealthy food and beverage advertising on children’s preferred websites in Canada. Mandatory regulations are needed.

The aim of the current study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument with psychometric qualities to measure effect of social media usage on eating behaviour in university students.

A thirty-eight-item draft scale developed by the researchers. After content validity, twenty-two items are remained and was used to collect the data. In the analysis of the data, confirmatory factor analyses were performed to test construct validity. For the reliability of the scale, Cronbach alpha coefficient was calculated for the whole of the scale.

The participants attended from various departments of different universities in Ankara.

The scale was administered to the study group consisting of 247 university students.

Four items that had total correlation value less than 0·40 were removed from scale. The reliability coefficient of the whole eighteen-item scale was found to be 0·928.

It has been shown that the scale developed as a result of the validity and reliability analyses performed for the scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool and can be used in studies.

To investigate the advertising patterns on the posts of a fast-food chain in Brazil on three social media platforms in 2019.

An exploratory cross-sectional study.

Advertising strategies on the posts of a major fast-food chain on their official Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts. The strategies were investigated according to the INFORMAS protocol for food promotion monitoring. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to identify advertising patterns in each platform.

305 advertisements

Four advertising patterns were identified in the PCA of Facebook and Instagram. In both platforms, the components for kids and product exaltation were similar. On Facebook, a pattern corresponding to economic appeal was identified as price and discount, while on Instagram, this pattern also included a practical approach. On Facebook, the fourth component was named celebrity, while on Instagram it was celebrity/innovation since on this second social media the component also included the ‘new brand development’ variable. On YouTube, three advertising patterns were identified in PCA. Similar to the other platforms, the first and the second patterns were called for kids and price and discount, and the third component referred to both celebrity and commemorative dates.

The advertising patterns of the fast-food chain on three social media platforms were commonly directed to children and addressed price, discounts and the celebrities’ universe. The findings of this study corroborate other data in the literature regarding unhealthy food advertising on social media. This study discusses the urgency of regulating food advertising content on this medium.

To evaluate the prevalence of food and beverage marketing on Twitch.tv (Twitch), a social media platform where individuals broadcast live audiovisual material to millions of daily users.

Observational analysis of the prevalence of 238 food and beverage brands in five distinct categories (processed snacks; food delivery services and restaurants; candies, energy drinks/coffees/teas; and sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages) over the course of 18 months.

Twitch streamer profiles and stream titles between January 2018 and July 2019. Twitch chat room messages during July 2019.

None.

There was a significant increase in brand exposure on Twitch both in stream titles (sodas and candies, P < 0·05) and on streamer profiles (sodas, restaurants/food delivery services, candies, and energy drinks/coffees/teas, P < 0·05) over the 18-month study period. Energy drinks, coffees and teas had the most exposure with 1·08 billion exposure hours from profiles and 83 million exposure hours from titles. Restaurants/food delivery services and sugar-sweetened beverages were the most frequently mentioned products in chat rooms with 1·24 million messages and 1·10 million messages, respectively.

This study is the first to demonstrate the extent by which food and beverage brands garner millions of hours of exposure on Twitch. Future studies should evaluate the impact that this level of exposure to nutrient-poor, energy-dense products may have on behavioural and health outcomes.

To understand if, and how, Australian ultra-processed food industry actors use Twitter to influence food and health policy debates and produce a conceptual framework to describe such influence.

Twitter data of prominent industry actors were defined through purposive sampling and inductively coded to investigate possible influence on food and health policy debates. These are described using descriptive statistics and coded extracts.

Australia.

Twitter accounts of nine prominent ultra-processed food industry actors, including major trade associations.

Ultra-processed food industry actors actively used Twitter to influence food and health policy debates. Seven overarching strategies were identified: co-opting public health narratives; opposing regulation; supporting voluntary, co- or self-regulation; engaging policy processes and decision-makers; linking regulatory environments to the need for ongoing profitability; affecting public perceptions and value judgements; and using ignorance claims to distort policy narratives. Each lobbying strategy is underpinned with tactics described throughout and captured in a framework.

The current study creates a framework to monitor how food industry actors can use social media to influence food and health policy debates. As such, social media appears to be not only an important commercial determinant of health for brand marketing, but also an extension of lobbying practices to reshape public perceptions of corporate conduct and policy-making.

Adult women of reproductive age are highly engaged with social media, suggesting its utility for conveying health information to this population, at scale. This scoping review aimed to describe health promotion interventions conducted via social media and assess their effectiveness to improve health outcomes, engagement and acceptability in adult women of reproductive age.

Six databases were searched on 13 May 2022. Two reviewers independently screened studies. Data were extracted and risk of bias assessed using the Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal Tools.

Eligible studies conducted an intervention primarily via social media, with or without a comparison intervention, and reported health-related outcomes/behaviours pre- and post-intervention. Results were presented in narrative form.

Adult women (mean age 18–45 years).

Nine eligible studies were identified: six randomised control trials, two quasi-experimental studies and one cross-sectional study. Interventions focused on prenatal, antenatal or postpartum health or physical activity. Seven studies utilised Facebook for intervention delivery, one conducted a digital campaign across four platforms and one used WeChat. Studies reported significant improvements in a range of outcomes, including increased parenting competence, longer duration of breast-feeding and higher rates of physical activity. Social media interventions had greater engagement than control interventions.

We identified nine diverse health promotion interventions conducted via social media, which appear acceptable and effective for improving various health outcomes in adult women of reproductive age. While this supports the utility of social media to convey health information, further research is required to prove effectiveness and superiority over other intervention strategies.

To examine whether social media and online behaviours are associated with unhealthy food and beverage consumption in children.

A cross-sectional online survey was used to assess Internet and social media use, including engagement with food and beverage brand content, and frequency of consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. Linear regression models were used to examine associations between online behaviours, including engagement with food and beverage brand content, and consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages, adjusting for age, sex and socio-economic status.

New South Wales, Australia, in 2014.

Children aged 10–16 years (n 417).

Watching food brand video content on YouTube, purchasing food online and seeing favourite food brands advertised online were significantly associated with higher frequency of consumption of unhealthy foods and drinks after adjustment for age, sex and socio-economic status.

Children who have higher online engagement with food brands and content, particularly through online video, are more likely to consume unhealthy foods and drinks. Our findings highlight the need to include social media in regulations and policies designed to limit children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing. Social media companies have a greater role to play in protecting children from advertising.

To evaluate awareness of the Eat Well Campaign (EWC) among parents and assess perceptions about its effectiveness.

Post-campaign evaluation study with a cross-section of parents recruited through random digit dialling. Participants completed an online survey about EWC awareness, its perceived effectiveness among parents and their meal planning practices (attitudes, behaviours and self-efficacy).

A federal mass-media campaign disseminated by Health Canada (2013–2014) to promote meal planning to Canadian parents.

Parents (n 964) of children aged 2–12 years from all Provinces and Territories.

Of respondents, 41 % (390/964) were aware of the campaign; Quebec City and rural Quebec had the highest rates of awareness, whereas Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto had the lowest. Awareness was greater among parents with lower income, basic education and French-speakers. Campaign intensity was significantly associated with greater odds of reporting positive attitudes towards the EWC and meal planning (P < 0·05). Campaign awareness was significantly associated with greater odds of believing that meal planning helps maintain a healthy diet (OR = 1·68, 95 % CI 1·03, 2·74) and planning meals (OR = 1·66, 95 % CI 1·03, 2·54), but not self-efficacy, in adjusted models.

The present study is the first to evaluate an initiative that promoted meal planning with mass media. The EWC demonstrated evidence of success in terms of equitable access to a nutrition initiative by reaching lower-income and less-educated parents. Understanding behavioural factors among different segments of the population will be important to target appropriate audiences and develop tailored interventions that support healthy eating practices.

To describe US adults’ levels of support, neutrality and opposition to restricting junk food advertising to children on social media and explore associations with socio-demographic and health-related characteristics.

In 2020–2021, we used cross-sectional data from the National Cancer Institute’s 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey to estimate the prevalence of opinions towards advertising restrictions and correlates of neutrality and opposition using weighted multivariable logistic regression.

United States.

Adults aged 18+ years.

Among the analytic sample (n 2852), 54 % of adults were neutral or opposed to junk food advertising restrictions on social media. The odds of being neutral or opposed were higher among Non-Hispanic Black adults (v. non-Hispanic White; OR: 2·03 (95 % CI 1·26, 3·26)); those completing some college (OR: 1·68 (95 % CI 1·20, 2·34)) or high school or less (OR: 2·62 (95 % CI 1·74, 3·96)) (v. those with a college degree); those who were overweight (v. normal weight; OR: 1·42 (95 % CI: 1·05, 1·93)) and those reporting a moderate (OR: 1·45 (95 % CI 1·13, 1·88)) or conservative (OR: 1·71 (95 % CI 1·24, 2·35)) political viewpoint (v. liberal). Having strong (v. weaker) weight and diet-related cancer beliefs was associated with 53 % lower odds of being neutral or opposed to advertising restrictions (OR: 0·47 (95 % CI 0·36, 0·61)).

The current study identified subgroups of US adults for whom targeted communication strategies may increase support for policies to improve children’s food environment.