Abstract
We assessed the nutritional quality of branded food and beverage products advertised on 28 Web sites popular with children. Of the 77 advertised products for which nutritional information was available, 49 met Institute of Medicine criteria for foods to avoid, 23 met criteria for foods to neither avoid nor encourage, and 5 met criteria for foods to encourage. There is a need for further research on the nature and extent of food and beverage advertising online to aid policymakers as they assess the impact of this marketing on children.
Children and youths often visit Web sites designed especially for them.1,2 The top food and beverage advertisers on children's television have branded Web sites designed to appeal to children,3 and these companies are innovators in the digital marketing ecosystem.4 The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has established that food and beverage marketing encourages children to request and eat foods that are not good for them; therefore, the IOM has recommended a reduction in children's exposure to such marketing.5
Evidence shows that online advertising builds favorable attitudes toward brands, regardless of whether site visitors remember seeing advertisements.6 Yoo exposed undergraduate students to Web banner advertisements and found that students who had been exposed to an advertisement for a brand were more likely to choose that brand in a later test than were those not exposed to the advertisement for that brand.6 To date, only a handful of studies in the United States3,4,7,8 and Australia9 have documented the evolving online food-marketing environment targeting children and youth. Moore3 documented the range and extent of marketing techniques designed to engage children with company brands on food and beverage company Web sites. A 2007 report documented additional modes of targeting children and youth with food and beverage product marketing in the digital ageincluding mobile marketing, branding instant messaging, viral video, and commercializing online communities.4 A content analysis of 10 children's Web sites found that the foods marketed on the sites were not well suited to a healthful diet.7 Weber et al. found that the Web sites of 40 top food and beverage brands used “advergames” and cartoon characters to engage children with their brands.8 The Australian study found similar engagement techniques and references to unhealthful branded foods on popular Australian Web sites targeted toward children.9
In an attempt to provide further information on the food and beverage marketing to which children are exposed online, we examined Web sites popular with children to determine whether the sites contained depictions of branded foods and beverages. We also assessed the nutritional value of any marketed products on these Web sites and evaluated their appropriateness for school-age children.
METHODS
We purchased a ranking of the top 30 children's Web sites in the United States for October 2006 (the most recent month available when the study commenced) from Hitwise, an online activity tracking company.10 The ranking was ordered by number of visits. Because of the complexity and dynamism of Web sites, our study was exploratory. We did not have multiple coders, which precluded assessment of intercoder reliability. Between July 11, 2007, and August 28, 2007, E. B. examined each of the 30 home pages (and every page 1 click away from each home page) for the presence of advertisements for branded foods or beverages.
When we identified a branded product per the methods just described, we assessed the product's nutritional content using the IOM's 2007 standards for “competitive” foods in schools (foods sold outside of school lunch programs).11 These standards provided an evidence-based proxy for what could be considered healthful or unhealthful foods for children and youths, regardless of where the foods were consumed. The IOM has grouped foods into 3 tiers: tier 1 foods are consistent with what the US Department of Health and Human Services' 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) call “foods to encourage”11(p120) and are recommended for all students, tier 2 foods do not meet tier 1 criteria but do not fall outside DGA recommendations for other nutrients and are recommended only for high school students after school hours, and tier 3 foods are all those that are not recommended for any child at any time in school.
RESULTS
Two of the 30 Web sites were unavailable for viewing during the study period. There were 1709 unique pages directly linked (i.e., 1 click away) to the 28 remaining home pages (n = 1737 pages). We found 22 different food and beverage products on 6 of the home pages, and we found 71 additional products one click away from 18 of the home pages, for a total of 93 unique products (Table 1).
TABLE 1.
Branded Food and Beverage Products Found on the 30 Most Popular Children's Web Sites (Ranked by US Site Visits) for October 2006: July–August 2007
| Web Site | Branded Food or Beverage Product | Present on Home Page | Present 1 Click Away From Home Page |
| Disney Channel | Teddy Grahams Oatmeal snacks | X | |
| Splenda artificial sweetener | X | ||
| Cartoon Network | Cheez-It Stix crackers | X | X |
| Cheese Nips crackers | X | ||
| McDonalds Happy Meal | X | ||
| Red Robin restaurant | X | ||
| Sour Patch Extreme candy | X | X | |
| Neopets | Apple Jacks cereal | X | |
| Cocoa Krispies cereal | X | ||
| Gushers Fruit Snacks | X | ||
| M&Ms candy | X | ||
| Skittles candy | X | ||
| Disney Online | Baked Cheetos snacks | X | |
| Cheez-It Stix crackers | X | ||
| Horizon Organic Milk | X | ||
| PUR Water | X | ||
| Splenda artificial sweetener | X | ||
| Nickelodeon Online | Apple Jacks cereal | X | |
| Cheez-It Stix crackers | X | ||
| Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal | X | ||
| Froot Loops cereal | X | ||
| Froot Loops Cereal Straws snack | X | ||
| Froot Loops Smoothie cereal | X | ||
| Fruity Pebbles cereal | X | ||
| Honey Nut Cheerios cereal | X | ||
| Kid Cuisine frozen dinner | X | ||
| Kraft Macaroni and Cheese | X | ||
| Lunchables Pizza | X | ||
| Reeses Puffs cereal | X | ||
| Splitz Pop-Tarts | X | ||
| Teddy Grahams Oatmeal snacks | X | ||
| PBS Kids | Arby's restaurant | X | |
| Chick-Fil-A restaurant | X | ||
| Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant | X | ||
| McDonald's restaurant | X | ||
| Stonyfield Farm Organic Yo Baby yogurt | X | ||
| Millsberry | Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal | X | |
| French Toast Crunch cereal | X | ||
| Lucky Charms cereal | X | X | |
| Reese's Puffs cereal | X | ||
| Nick Jr | Eggo Waffles | X | |
| FruitaBu Organic Fruit snacks | X | ||
| McDonald's Asian Salad | X | ||
| PUR Water | X | ||
| Quaker snack bars | X | ||
| Teddy Grahams Oatmeal snacks | X | ||
| Barbie | No food or beverage products | ||
| My Scene | No food or beverage products | ||
| Fun Brain | Domino's Pizza restaurant | X | |
| M&Ms candy | X | ||
| McDonald's Happy Meal | X | ||
| Quaker snack bars | X | ||
| Enchanted Learning | No food or beverage products | ||
| Wrigley's Candystand | Altoids candy | X | |
| Altoids Cinnamon Mints | X | ||
| Big League Chew gum | X | X | |
| Big League Chew: watermelon gum | X | ||
| Big Red gum | X | X | |
| Crème Savers candy | X | X | |
| Doublemint gum | X | X | |
| Eclipse gum | X | X | |
| Eclipse Mints | X | ||
| Extra gum | X | X | |
| Extra Wildberry Frost Plen-T-Pak gum | X | ||
| Freedent gum | X | ||
| Hubba Bubba gum | X | X | |
| Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape gum | X | X | |
| Hubba Bubba Max gum | X | X | |
| Hubba Bubba Ouch! Bubble Gum | X | ||
| Juicy Fruit gum | X | X | |
| Life Savers candy | X | X | |
| Life Savers Five Flavor candy | X | ||
| Life Savers Fruit Tarts candy | X | ||
| Life Savers Gummies candy | X | ||
| Life Savers Jelly Beans candy | X | ||
| Life Savers Orange Mints candy | X | ||
| Life Savers PepOMint candy | X | ||
| Life Savers Sours candy | X | ||
| Life Savers Sugar Free Wint-O-Green candy | X | ||
| Life Savers Sweet Mints candy | X | ||
| Orbit gum | X | X | |
| Orbit Citrusmint gum | X | ||
| Orbit White gum | X | X | |
| Trollis candy | X | ||
| Winterfresh gum | X | X | |
| Wrigley's Spearmint gum | X | ||
| Big Fat Awesome House Party | No food or beverage products | ||
| Disney World | Chef Boyardee canned food | X | |
| Fruity Pebbles cereal | X | ||
| Everything Girl | No food or beverage products | ||
| Funschool | Cheese Nips crackers | X | |
| Enfamil A.R. LIPIL infant formula | X | ||
| Enfamil Gentlease LIPIL infant formula | X | ||
| Froot Loops Smoothie cereal | X | ||
| Hebrew National Kosher Hot Dogs | X | ||
| Horizon Organic Milk Plus DHA Omega-3 | X | ||
| Nestle Juicy Juice Harvest Surprise | X | ||
| Nutramigen LIPIL infant formula | X | ||
| PUR flavored water | X | ||
| Slim Jim beef jerky | X | ||
| Special K cereal | X | ||
| Teddy Grahams snacks | X | ||
| Teddy Grahams Oatmeal Snacks | X | X | |
| Bratz | Burger King Kids Meal | X | |
| The N | Sprite soda | X | |
| Slim Jim beef jerky | X | ||
| Disney's Toontown Online | Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs | X | |
| PUR flavored water | X | ||
| LEGO Worlds | No food or beverage products | ||
| Polly Pocket | No food or beverage products | ||
| StarFall | No food or beverage products | ||
| Scholastic | Cheerios cereal | X | |
| Crunchberries cereal | X | ||
| Eggo Waffles | X | ||
| Froot Loops cereal | X | ||
| Honey Nut Cheerios cereal | X | ||
| Lucky Charms cereal | X | ||
| Trix cereal | X | ||
| Playhouse Disney | Site not available | ||
| Fisher Price International | Site not available | ||
| Fisher Price US | Quaker Oats | X | |
| McDonald's Corporation | X | ||
| DLTK's Crafts for Kids | No food or beverage products | ||
| Postopia | Cocoa Pebbles cereal | X | X |
| Fruity Pebbles cereal | X | X | |
| Honeycomb cereal | X | X | |
| Post cereals | X | ||
| American Girl | No food or beverage products |
Note. Web sites are ordered by rank from most visited to least visited.
We obtained nutrition information on the products either from the product label (25 products) or from the manufacturer's Web site (52 products). We excluded 16 products because of a lack of product specificity or unobtainable nutrition information. Of the remaining 77 products, only 2 (Nestle Juicy Juice Harvest Surprise and Quaker Oats Oatmeal) met the IOM tier 1 criteria11 (Table 2). Three additional products included at least 1 variety that met tier 1 criteria. Another 20 products met tier 2 criteria, and 3 other products had at least 1 variety that met tier 2 criteria. The remaining 49 products fell into tier 3.
TABLE 2.
Branded Food and Beverage Products Found on the 30 Most Popular Children's Web Sites (Ranked by US Site Visits) for October 2006, Categorized by Institute of Medicine Standards for Competitive Foods in Schools: July–August 2007
| Tier 1 Products | Tier 2 Products | Tier 3 Products | Products Excluded From Analysis |
| FruitaBu Organic Fruit snacksa | Baked Cheetos snack | Altoids candy | Arby's restaurantb |
| Horizon Organic Milka | Cheerios cereal | Altoids Cinnamon Mints | Big League Chew gumc |
| Horizon Organic Milk Plus DHA Omega-3a | Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal | Apple Jacks cereal | Big League Chew: watermelon gumc |
| Nestle Juicy Juice Harvest Surprise | Eclipse gum | Big Red gum | Chick-Fil-A restaurantb |
| Quaker Oats | Eclipse Mints | Burger King Kids Meald | Chuck E. Cheese's restaurantb |
| Extra Wildberry Frost Plen-T-Pak gum | Cheese Nips crackers | Domino's Pizza restaurantb | |
| French Toast Crunch cereal | Cheez-It Stix crackers | Enfamil A.R. LIPIL infant formulae | |
| Froot Loops Cereal Straws snack | Chef Boyardee canned foodd | Enfamil Gentlease LIPIL infant formulae | |
| Honeycomb cereal | Cocoa Krispies cereal | McDonald's Corporationb | |
| Honey Nut Cheerios cereal | Cocoa Pebbles cereal | McDonald's restaurantb | |
| Kid Cuisine frozen dinnerf | Crème Savers candy | Nutramigen LIPIL infant formulae | |
| Life Savers Fruit Tarts | Crunchberries cereal | Hubba Bubba gumc | |
| Life Savers Sugar Free Wint-O-Green candy | Doublemint gum | Life Savers Sours candyc | |
| Orbit gum | Eggo Waffles | PUR Waterc | |
| Orbit Citrusmint gum | Extra gum | Red Robin restaurantb | |
| Orbit White gum | Freedent gum | Stonyfield Farm Organic Yo Baby Yogurte | |
| Post Cerealsf | Froot Loops cereal | ||
| PUR flavored water | Froot Loops Smoothie cereal | ||
| Quaker snack barsf | Fruity Pebbles cereal | ||
| Special K cereal | Gushers Fruit Snacks | ||
| Splenda artificial sweetener | Hebrew National Kosher Hot Dogs | ||
| Teddy Grahams snacks | Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape gum | ||
| Teddy Grahams Oatmeal snacks | Hubba Bubba Max gum | ||
| Hubba Bubba Ouch! Bubble Gum | |||
| Juicy Fruit gum | |||
| Kraft Macaroni and Cheese | |||
| Life Savers candy | |||
| Life Savers Five Flavor candy | |||
| Life Savers Gummies candy | |||
| Life Savers Jelly Beans candy | |||
| Life Savers Orange Mints candy | |||
| Life Savers PepOMint candy | |||
| Life Savers Sweet Mints candy | |||
| Lucky Charms cereal | |||
| Lunchables Pizzad | |||
| M&Ms candy | |||
| McDonald's Asian Salad | |||
| McDonald's Happy Meald | |||
| Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs | |||
| Reese's Puffs cereal | |||
| Skittles candy | |||
| Slim Jim beef jerky | |||
| Sour Patch Extreme candy | |||
| Splitz Pop-Tarts | |||
| Sprite soda | |||
| Trix cereal | |||
| Trollis candy | |||
| Winterfresh gum | |||
| Wrigley's Spearmint gum |
Note. “Competitive” foods are those sold in schools outside of meals provided by the school. Tier 1 foods are consistent with what the US Department of Health and Human Services' 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) call “foods to encourage”11(p120) and are recommended for all students; tier 2 foods do not meet tier 1 criteria but do not fall outside DGA recommendations for other nutrients and are recommended only for high school students after school hours; and tier 3 comprises all other foods.
At least 1 available variety meets tier 1 criteria.
Excluded from analysis because the advertised brand was a restaurant that sold too many products to assess.
Excluded from analysis because nutrition information was unavailable or incomplete.
No available varieties meet criteria for tier 1 or tier 2.
Excluded from analysis because the product is unlikely to be consumed by school-age children.
At least 1 available variety meets tier 2 criteria.
DISCUSSION
The Federal Trade Commission has reported that food and beverage marketing targeting youths in 2006 was dominated by campaigns integrating product promotion across traditional platforms (e.g., television, print) and evolving platforms (e.g., Web, cell phone).12 On Web sites for children alone, there were 2 billion impressions (ads displayed to a site visitor) for foods and beverages in 2006.12 The results of our study point to the likelihood that the food and beverage products advertised on the Web were those children should avoid.
Our study had several limitations. Data collection was confined to each Web site's home page and pages that were 1 click away. These criteria yielded more than 1700 Web pages for analysis, but they did not necessarily reflect how a visitor would explore a site nor did they reflect the depth and complexity of the siteslinks may be followed far from the initial entry point. The pages also cannot be assumed to be independent of one another. E. B. collected the data, so we could not assess intercoder reliability. Furthermore, the sites most popular in October 2006 (the most recent month for which site rankings were obtainable) may have been less popular when the data were collected from those sites in July and August 2007, and the products advertised on the sites may have changed between site ranking and data collection.
Although we provide only a limited examination of Web sites popular with children, we found the food and beverage products marketed on the sites to be of poor nutritional quality. In 2006, 44 companies spent $1.6 billion marketing foods and beverages to children and youths,12 and the proportion of marketing dollars spent online is predicted to grow.13 Therefore, further research on the extent and nature of food and beverage advertising online is needed to aid policymakers as they assess the impact of this marketing on children.
Acknowledgments
Support for this research was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (grant 052917).
The authors would like to thank Dawud Williams for assistance with data entry and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Human Participant Protection
No protocol approval was necessary because data were obtained from secondary sources.
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