Giving the wrong impression: food and beverage brand impressions delivered to youth through popular movies

Abstract

Background

Marketing on television showcases less-healthful options, with emerging research suggesting movies promote similar products. Given the obesity epidemic, understanding advertising to youth should be a public health imperative. The objective of this study was to estimate youth impressions to food and beverages delivered through movies.

Methods

Impressions were calculated by dividing US receipts annually into average movie ticket prices, then multiplying this by the number of brand appearances. Examination by ratings, product types and ages were conducted by Spearman rank correlation coefficient tests.

Results

Youth in the USA saw over 3 billion food, beverage or food–retail establishment (FRE) impressions on average, annually from 1996 to 2005. Those aged 12–18 viewed over half of all impressions, with PG-13-rated movies containing 61.5% of impressions. There were no significant trends in brand appearances by food, beverage or FRE impressions over the decade, although there was a decreasing trend in R-rated impressions for both foods (P< 0.01) and beverages (P< 0.01), but not FREs (P= 0.08).

Conclusions

Movies promote billions of food and beverage impressions annually to youth. Given the public health crisis of obesity, future research should further investigate these trends, as well as the potential association of these unhealthy exposures in youth.

Introduction

Concurrent with rising obesity trends in children and adolescents, youth have been a prime target for food marketing through multiple media sources, including television.¹ Marketers capitalize on those in between childhood and adolescence (i.e. tweens) because of their increasing independence, dispensable funds and easy access to advertised foods and beverages.² In fact, they play a pivotal role in swaying familial purchases (often called ‘pester power’), and they have the potential to be loyal customers for many years.^2,3 Siegel et al. report that over two-thirds of those aged 9–11 years continue using brands that they prefer long term.² Thus, although the definitive effects of brand appearances in media remain largely unknown, the long-term effects could further feed into the obesity epidemic. Children-directed advertising conceptualized in the 1950s with messaging on television (TV) programs such as The Mickey Mouse Club and Howdy Doody.⁴ Marketing strategies have since exploded with increased exposure to TV by Americans. Approximately 99% of children live with a television at home, with the majority reporting three or more per household, with one frequently in the child's bedroom.^5,6 It has been estimated that a 20-fold increase in advertisements targeting children occurred in the 1990s,¹ with more recent estimates of food advertising to youth soaring up to 21 advertisements daily.⁷ Of concern, most food advertisements are high in calories, sugar, salt and fat, and lack micronutrients and fiber (i.e. nutrient poor and energy dense).^8–11

Youth exposure to food and beverage commercials delivered through TV has been well documented.^8,12–19 Increasingly, movies are becoming a medium for delivering food advertisements.¹ Recently, the prevalence of food and beverage placement in domestic films was estimated around 70%.²⁰ This trend may be a cause for concern; a growing body of literature has uncovered the role of movies in influencing health-risk behaviors. These behaviors include tobacco initiation in youth²¹ and potentially alcohol consumption for young adults.^22,23 The magnitude of the influence of tobacco content in movies on youth health-risk behavior has prompted policies such as assigning movies ‘R’ ratings to minimize youth exposures, as well as showing anti-smoking campaigns prior to movies with tobacco exposure.²⁴ Even the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended bans on tobacco advertising and restrictions on alcohol advertising in the media.²⁵

In light of the obesity epidemic, which has grown similarly with the increase in children's exposure to food advertisements, and following the example of previous research which has shown a link between youth health-risk behavior and movie exposure, we sought to conduct the first study to our knowledge that examines food and beverage impressions of youth through product appearances in movies. The purpose of this study was to (i) estimate the total number of food and beverage placement impressions delivered in popular movies over 1996–2005, (ii) examine impression delivery by years and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating for product types and (iii) estimate US children and adolescent impressions by sex based on Nielsen audience composition data.

Methods

The aim of this study was to determine total food and beverage brand impressions for the top-20 US box-office movies annually according to The Internet Movie Database,²⁶ from 1996 to 2005. Impressions were generated by utilizing previously published food and beverage brand appearance data,²⁰ gross box office ticket sales²⁷ and movie ticket price data.²⁸ Coding for movies included MPAA ratings (i.e. ‘General Audiences’ [G], for all audiences; ‘Parental Guidance’ Suggested [PG], for material that may not be suitable for children; ‘Parents Strongly Cautioned’ [PG-13] for content that may be inappropriate for children younger than 13 and ‘Restricted’ [R] in which children under age 17 require a parent or guardian present for adult content),²⁹ and food, beverage or food–retail establishment (FRE) appearances. Two trained coders viewed all movies at least twice to identify and code product appearances, with 10% of the sample double-coded to establish interrater reliability.²⁰ Product appearances were defined as any food, beverage or FREs with an identifiable product name, logo or both.²⁰ Nielsen Media Research audience composition data from 2003, as described by Polansky and Glantz,³⁰ was the basis for examining impression delivery based on the proportion of youth viewing the films. The number of food and beverage impressions in each movie measures the promotion of these items. For this study, each movie impression captured one viewing of food or beverage appearance exposure by one individual.³¹

Estimating food and beverage brand impressions

A three-step process was used to determine impressions of each movie in US theatre's first release (i.e. not on any other secondary medium): (i) US gross box revenues²⁷ were obtained for each movie included in this analyses, (ii) box-office revenues were divided by the average movie ticket price in the respective movie release year, as reported by the National Association of Theatre Owners²⁸ to determine in-theatre viewings and (iii) in-theatre viewings for each movie were then multiplied by the movie's total food and beverage appearances²⁰ (Table 1). After deriving these variables, the following calculation was employed: (‘gross US sales receipts/average movie ticket price) x number of food and beverage placements by year = Total mean impressions’.

Table 1.

Movie impressions (billions) of 138 movies with food and beverage placement from 1996 to 2005

Year	US gross (billions)	Movies per year	Ticket price (mean)	Tickets sold (millions)	Product placements (mean)	No. of brand placement impressions per movie among movies with ≥1 brand for that category, mean-billions			Impressions (mean in billions)
						Beverage	Food	Retail (FRE)
1996	2.22	17	4.42	502.5	10.5	2.10	2.18	1.36	5.64
1997	2.20	17	4.59	479.4	5.5	0.95	0.64	0.97	2.56
1998	1.77	13	4.69	376.5	8.1	1.32	0.85	0.96	3.13
1999	1.95	13	5.06	384.8	11.4	0.91	1.88	1.96	4.75
2000	2.07	14	5.39	374.6	7.1	1.10	0.95	0.59	2.64
2001	1.99	13	5.65	352.1	5.7	0.73	0.34	0.78	1.85
2002	2.39	13	5.80	411.9	10.2	1.51	1.45	1.73	4.69
2003	1.95	13	6.03	323.8	8.8	0.97	0.85	1.02	2.84
2004	2.24	11	6.21	360.2	10.1	1.23	0.96	0.99	3.18
2005	2.34	14	6.41	365.7	8.9	0.94	1.40	0.92	3.26
Total (mean)	2.11	13.8	5.43	394.2	8.6	1.17	1.15	1.13	3.45

Using brand appearance data for product types,²⁰ impressions delivered by MPAA rating and years for the top two subgroups in beverage, food and FREs were calculated (Table 2). These categories, respectively, for beverage, food and FRE are listed as follows: (i) sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB, e.g. soda, sports and fruit drinks) and (ii) no calorie beverages (NCB, e.g. water); (i) salty snacks (e.g. chips, pretzels, popcorn) and (ii) candy/confections and (i) quick-serve restaurants (QSR) and (ii) casual dining. The same calculation described above for total impressions was used to generate food, beverage and FRE impressions accordingly.

Table 2.

Average food and beverage product placement impressions (millions) delivered MPAA rating and years 1996–2005 for the top 20 US grossing box office movies by category

Characteristic	Movies with 1 + brand (n = 138), n (%)	Number of mean impressions in millions per movies with >1 brand for that category
		Beverage (n = 425)		Food (n = 427)		Retail (n = 328)
		SSB, n = 323 (76.0%)	No calorie, n = 60 (14.1%)	Candy and confections, n = 107 (25.1%)	Salty snacks, n = 94 (22.0%)	QSR, n = 203 (61.9%)	Casual family dining, n = 72 (22.0%)
MPAA rating
G/PG	29 (21.0)	1113.4	205.1	503.8	443.4	1314.4	466.4
PG-13	71 (51.4)	4413.3	813.0	2718.1	2392.0	3217.3	1141.6
R	38 (27.6)	1893.8	348.9	623.0	548.2	1287.5	456.8
Total (mean)		2473.5	455.7	1281.6	1127.9	1939.7	688.3
Movie year
1996	17 (12.3)	1596.0	294.0	545.0	479.6	843.2	299.2
1997	17 (12.3)	722.0	133.0	160.0	140.8	601.4	213.4
1998	13 (9.4)	1003.2	184.8	212.5	187.0	595.2	211.2
1999	13 (9.4)	691.6	127.4	470.0	413.6	1215.2	431.2
2000	14 (10.1)	836.0	154.0	237.5	209.0	365.8	129.8
2001	13 (9.4)	554.8	102.2	85.0	74.8	483.6	171.6
2002	13 (9.4)	1147.6	211.4	362.5	319.0	1072.6	380.6
2003	13 (9.4)	737.2	135.8	212.5	187.0	632.4	224.4
2004	11 (8.0)	934.8	172.2	240.0	211.2	613.8	217.8
2005	14 (10.1)	714.4	131.6	350.0	308.0	570.4	202.4
Total (mean)		893.8	164.6	287.5	253.0	699.4	248.2

Estimating brand impressions delivered to children and adolescents

Total food and beverage delivered to movie audiences by age, sex and MPAA rating were estimated using quarterly Nielsen Media Research audience composition data from May to June 2003 (Table 2).³⁰ These data were applied to discern the proportion of G/PG, PG-13 and R-rated movies viewed by males and females aged 6–11 and 12–17. For this study, audience composition by age and sex was assumed to remain stable over the decade. Combining these data with impressions data and brand appearance data allowed estimates to be calculated for specific audiences based on MPAA rating. Food and beverage impressions delivered to those aged 6–11 and 12–17 by year of movie release and MPAA rating within each year were calculated.

Statistical analysis

Impressions were based on descriptive statistics previously generated²⁰ for frequencies of movie classifications (i.e. MPAA rating), and food, beverage and eating establishment distributions. Data of movies with at least one brand placement (n = 138) were entered into a Microsoft Excel database and impressions were calculated according to the steps described above. All data were entered into Microsoft Excel™ 2007 and analyzed using R (The R-Project for Statistical Computing, version 2.7.1, 2010, Vienna, Austria). Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were used to evaluate trends overall and by MPAA rating over the decade of movie measurement. Alpha levels for all analyses were set at 0.05 (two-sided).

Results

Of the 200 movies analyzed over 1996–2005, 138 (69.0%) contained at least one food, beverage or FRE appearance. The total impressions, presented in billions (Table 1), were based on the movies (n= 138) during this period with at least one food, beverage or FRE appearance. Over this decade, Americans spent an average of $3.35 billion each year on the top 20 box-office hits (Table 1), which translated to an average of approximately 3.45 billion impressions annually for American audiences. Although it appears the number of impressions decreased over the decade studied, there were no significant trends in food, beverage or FRE impressions delivered in movies over this decade (P= 0.89, P= 0.51 and P= 0.97, respectively).

Food and beverage impressions by MPAA rating and year

Given over half of the movies with product appearances were PG-13 rated (51.4%), impressions from these films consistently surpassed all other MPAA ratings (Table 2). In the 71 films rated PG-13, a projected 14.7 billion (61.5%) of total impressions of food and beverage products were delivered over 10 years in the top two categories of food, beverage and FRE. Out of the total mean 23.9 billion impressions over 1996–2005, R-rated films depicted an estimated 5.16 billion impressions (21.6%), and G/PG films contained the least, an estimated 4.05 billion (16.9%). In total, appropriate movies for those under 18 years old (i.e. G/PG and PG-13 rated) comprised 2.75 billion (79.6%) of all movie impressions.

By year, there was a 71.0% increase in G/PG-rated impressions when comparing 2005 to 1996 (Fig. 1). However, the only significant trends over time were the decreased association in R-rated impressions over the decade for foods and beverages (P< 0.01 and P< 0.01, respectively), but not FREs (P= 0.08). There were no significant trends over time for foods, beverages or FRE impressions by either G/PG (P= 0.81, P= 0.51 and P= 0.97) or PG-13 rated movies (P= 0.92, P= 0.47 and P= 0.73).

Fig. 1.

Percentage of total food and beverage impressions of 138 movies with product placement from 1996 to 2005 by MPAA rating.

Food, beverage and eating establishment impressions by category

Of the 1180 brands coded, nearly three-quarters (n = 859) were depicted by the top two categories of products (Table 2). The impressions categorized as beverages (33.9%), foods (33.3%) and FRE categories (32.8%) were similar in proportion. These products (n = 859) delivered an estimated 25.5 billion impressions over the decade. The SSB advertisements (e.g. soda, sports beverages, fruit flavored drinks) dominated with  84.4% of the 10.58 billion impressions from the beverage category (mean = 893.8 million) and 35.1% of the totals calculated over the decade. There was an average of 7.29 billion more SSB impressions than NCB impressions over this period.

FRE, the next prominent category, delivered an average of nearly 950 million impressions per year. Approximately three-quarters of these impressions (73.8%) fall under QSRs (i.e. fast food). Finally, for foods (21.2% of average impressions), candy/confections and salty snacks resulted in an estimated 5.41 billion impressions. Although the difference in the food category was the smallest (53.2 and 46.8% totals, respectively), there were more candy/confection impressions than for those in the salty snack category.

Food and beverage impressions by age and sex

On average, nearly 3.1 billion food and beverage impressions (89.2%) were seen annually in theatres by US children aged 6–17 over this decade. Those aged 6–11 averaged one-third of total impressions, of which >70% or ∼818 million impressions came from age appropriate G/PG-rated movies. Children saw more impressions from G/PG-rated films than adolescents. Conversely, the older pre-teens and adolescents averaged 55.9% of all impressions or nearly 2 billion per year. Furthermore, 37.6% of those impressions (724.5 million) were viewed from movies rated for adults due to explicit content. Those aged 12–17 were exposed to more impressions from PG-13 and R-rated films than children aged 6–11. Additionally, female exposure from product appearances in G/PG movies during years 6–11 and 12–17 was greater than males. Males, on the other hand, had greater exposure to both PG-13 and R-rated movies, with approximately 1 billion impressions for all MPAA ratings on average per year. Overall, for both sexes, the impressions from movies rated G decreased with age, while those from more mature films (i.e. PG-13 and R-rated movies) increased (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2.

Food and beverage movie impressions (millions) by audience composition of sex and age (years).

Discussion

Main finding of this study

Billions of first-time food and beverage impressions over 1996–2005 were projected annually in theatres to American children and adolescents. Films rated PG-13 exceeded all other MPAA rating categories for estimated impressions. By category, SSB (e.g. soda) and QSR (e.g. fast-food) surpassed all other advertisement impressions and accounted for approximately two-thirds of the impressions. Pre-adolescents and teenagers had the highest exposure to food and beverage impressions. However, ∼70% of the 1.15 billion impressions to children aged 6–11 originated from age-appropriate selections. These findings demonstrate that in first-run popular movies across all MPAA ratings, billions of impressions promoting ‘junk’ (i.e. nutrient poor, energy dense) foods reached youth in the USA every year. This research can serve as a benchmark for future studies investigating trends and impacts of food and beverage advertising delivered to youth through motion pictures.

The trends of food and beverage impressions presented here were based on many factors, including ticket prices and audience composition. The only statistically significant trend was the decrease in R-rated impressions over this period. However, ticket sales decreased ∼27% from 1996 to 2005, and impressions remained relatively stable, suggesting a potential increasing trend in brand occurrences over the decade. Also, ticket prices increased 45% over the decade, which means Americans spent only about 5% more in 2005 than 1996. For example, although the years 2003 and 2005 have similar product placement averages, the number of impressions differed based mainly on ticket sales, not decreased product appearances. Thus, monitoring brand appearances along with economics and box-office popularity remain important to garner overall trends.

What is already known on this topic

Understanding child exposure to these impressions in movies is especially important given the compounded effects of brand loyalty over a lifetime, yet little is known about how these embedded techniques (i.e. product placements) directly affect preferences and purchasing behaviors in youth. Some researchers have aligned product appearances with subliminal advertising.^32,33 However, the effectiveness of product placement remains challenging given the proprietary nature of the data.³⁴ From a marketing standpoint, if exposure to branding in movies results in subsequent recognition and purchasing of specified brands following exposure in a theatre, then the investment has been successful. At least one study has shown product placement of SSBs to be worthwhile in children. Auty and Lewis³³ found that this form of advertising affected beverage choice following viewing, with repeated placement prompting recall. However, levels and repetition of placement may negatively impact memory and attitudes towards the brand.^32,35,36 For example, Homer³⁵ reported that companies choosing more blatant and repetitious product placement may actually decrease attitudes towards a brand, which could thereby decrease sales. Yet others have found differences in perception based on placement modality (e.g. background occurrences versus central to the plot), and use or reference by main characters.³⁷ Overall, more research needs to be conducted to measure trends in product placement of foods and beverages, as well as attitudes and purchasing requests of youth following such exposure.

Interestingly, the impressions of foods and beverages portrayed by R-rated movies significantly decreased over the decade, suggesting movies targeting youth (i.e. PG, PG-13 rated) may be an increasing priority for advertisers. For other concerning media exposures in youth, such as smoking, alcohol use and other illegal substances, movies rated PG-13 and R have been shown to be associated with the initiation of adolescent tobacco and alcohol experimentation.^25,38 Also, Andreyeva et al.³⁹ recently reported that SSB and QSR advertising on TV was related to increased intake of SSBs (9.4%) and QSRs (1.1%) among those in fifth grade over time. Although the direct effects (e.g. attitudes, behaviors) of food and beverage product placements remain inconclusive, the fact that these companies invest over $10 billion annually¹ suggests these advertising tactics result in net gains by building brand loyalty in young impressionable consumers.

What this study adds

This research found that films rated appropriately for younger children (e.g. G/PG) contain billions of advertisements marketing foods inconsistent with dietary recommendations, especially SSBs and QSRs. As the diet quality of youth continues to decline paralleling increases in childhood obesity, marketing to youth has become a target of potential intervention and policy change, yet movies have not been scrutinized as such. According to the Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising, 17 companies now pledge to advertise ‘better’ food choices to those under age 12. However, throughout their language of non-traditional media advertising, movies were not mentioned once as a possible venue to reach this vulnerable population.⁴⁰ Although these companies have pledged to reduce marketing to youth in TV, radio, print, Internet, mobile phones and viral marketing, the potential increase in advertising via product placement in child-appropriate movies remains concerning and plausible. The data presented here represents calculations prior to these 2006 commitments, and can serve as a benchmark for future research.

Limitations

Even though this study characterizes the number of food and beverage impressions to segments of youth in the USA, only first-run theatre incidents of the top-20 box-office hits were considered given the scope of the project. Not only does this snapshot miss less popular movies, but also first viewings outside the theatre and additional viewings after release on DVD. Moreover, these estimates exclude repeated viewings following ownership or watching online. Lehu and Bressoud⁴¹ found that watching a movie for the first time in the theatre improves brand appearance recall, and that selection of a movie for home viewing may further positively impact brand recall. Additionally, these estimates do not include changes in population growth, which are currently estimated for the USA at about 1%⁴²; and are also based on publicly available quarterly audience composition data in 2003. Based on this knowledge, these approximations likely underestimate the true number of impressions delivered to youth in America. Of further concern, box-office revenues for these popular movies continue to expand internationally,²⁶ similar to Western culture (e.g. QSRs and SSBs) and obesity rates.⁴³

Given the difficulty of isolating trends due to multiple factors in the methodology, future research should investigate a longer period with annual audience composition data, and take into account estimated population changes. The statistical power in this research was limited based on the years tracked and movies considered, and could potentially demonstrate more accurate trends with a greater sample size. Additionally, voluntary approaches to limiting children's advertising to foods and beverages began in 2006. Although, family genres (i.e. animated, comedy) were less likely to contain brand appearances as compared with movies of action/adventure, comedy or drama,²⁰ future research could focus on movies spanning ‘children’ or ‘family’ genres, as well as trailers and commercials placed prior to feature films to evaluate trends to those under the age of 12 before and after this pledge. Also, investigating individual responses to product placement following exposure is important to understand the efficacy of this style of marketing. Examples for future study include the effects of seeing brands in movies on brand metrics, like brand awareness and favorability, message association and purchase intent, which are especially important in children given the compounded effects of brand loyalty over a lifetime. Additionally, surveying youth on viewing habits of motion pictures (e.g. rental or movie purchases, number of viewings at home, on television, computer, hand-held devices or telephones, etc.) would more accurately describe exposure to food and beverage advertisements via brand appearances. Future research could also focus on the disparity between advertising of SSBs and no calorie drinks, and ultimately how these advertisements potentially impact childhood obesity trends. Finally, another potential area of investigation is to examine if featuring more healthful products and habits in movies could positively impact youth. Despite these limitations, this study presents the first estimates of food and beverage impression trends reaching youth in the USA from popular movies.

Conclusions

Youth in the USA were exposed to billions of first-run movie impressions promoting foods, beverages and FRE brand appearances—especially SSBs and QSRs—annually over the decade from 1996 to 2005 in theatres alone. This research highlights that movies, including age-appropriate versions, potentially provide widespread youth exposure to food advertising. The billions of impressions touting energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages reaching children and adolescents in the USA alone, warrants further investigation given its potential impact on the epidemic of childhood obesity.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institute of Health [grant R21CA116706].