Australian children are being bombarded by unhealthy food marketing in many parts of their lives: when they watch television, use social media, go to school or watch/attend sport. Supermarket shelves also contain numerous unhealthy products that use characters, celebrities, games and other marketing tactics that appeal to children. In Australia, a complex mix of statutory regulations, co-regulatory and self-regulatory codes has created a complex system that does not provide effective protection for children and adolescents from exposure to unhealthy food marketing.

Television Advertising

• During children’s peak viewing times and over all times slots, television audiences are exposed to unhealthy food ads more than twice as often as healthy foods ads.
• Ads for unhealthy foods and brands are more likely in children’s peak viewing times compared with all time slots combined.
• Snack foods (e.g. chips, popcorn), crumbed/battered meats, fast foods/take away meals and sweetened drinks are the most frequently advertised foods.

Outdoor Advertising

• Children are bombarded with unhealthy food marketing on public transport and around schools.
• In Greater Sydney, it was estimated that children would be exposed to more than 2,800 ads for unhealthy food if travelling on trains, over 1,000 if travelling on buses, and almost 700 if they walked to school. Of all ads observed, 97% were on New South Wales (NSW) state government infrastructure (eg. buses, train stations).
• In Melbourne, almost two thirds of food ads found on Melbourne’s public transport network (displayed in and around train stations, tram stops, bus stops and near schools) were found to promote unhealthy food and drinks. Unhealthy food ads have also been found to be more common in Melbourne’s most-disadvantaged compared to least disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
• In Perth, almost three quarters of outdoor food advertising within 500 metres of schools is for unhealthy food and drinks. There were 9 times more ads for unhealthy food and drinks than healthy items. Schools located in low socio-economic areas had a significantly higher proportion of unhealthy food and drink ads within 250m of schools (compared to ads found 250‐500m from schools).
• Fast food, sugary drinks, alcohol and snack foods are the most commonly food and drinks advertised.

Sports Sponsorship

• More than one-third of all junior community sports clubs accept unhealthy sponsors, including alcohol, gambling, and unhealthy food sponsors combined.
• Unhealthy sports sponsorship differed across sport types with more than half of football clubs and over a third of netball, cricket, and soccer clubs identified as being affiliated with an alcohol or an unhealthy food sponsor.
• Clubs in regional areas were 2-3 times more likely to be affiliated with an unhealthy food sponsor than clubs located metro areas.

Digital Marketing

• On any given week, children could be exposed to almost 100 food promotions on their mobile devices, including almost 34 promotions per week for fast food restaurants or delivery services related to unhealthy food, 13 promotions for sugar-sweetened beverages and 12 promotions for chocolate and confectionery.
• It is estimated that almost two-thirds of all online food promotions are ‘earned’ media impressions, meaning that they do not directly come from the brand but are shared by third parties through reviews, reposts, blogs, referrals and word-of-mouth. Most were from social media community or celebrity pages, such as meme pages or online influencers.

Product Packaging

• Children in Australia are targeted by promotional techniques on the packaging of unhealthy food products.
• Numerous promotional techniques were found to be used to increase the appeal of food to children, including character-based elements such as personified objects (e.g., waving marshmallows with smiling faces), photographs or illustrations of children and licensed or branded cartoon characters (e.g., Minions, Bluey, the Coco Pops Monkey). Other techniques included childhood life references (e.g. depiction of playground equipment), gifts (e.g., toys), games and contests. Such child directed promotions were particularly common on foods for infants and young children and confectionery.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) ‘Set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic drinks to children’ states that settings where children (aged < 18 years) gather (such as schools, playgrounds, family and child clinics, and sporting and cultural activities) should be free from all forms of marketing of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, or salt. The WHO recommends governments adopt and implement effective measures to restrict exposure of children to unhealthy food marketing and establish systems to enforce implementation of legislation.

There have been consistent calls from major public health organisations for Australian governments to regulate the food advertising industry to reduce children’s exposure to advertising that promotes unhealthy food and drinks. Regulations should:

• be government-led and legislated
• clearly define terms such as ‘unhealthy food’ and ‘unhealthy food marketing’, classifying foods using the Australian Dietary guidelines, as recommended by the COAG Health Council,
• clearly define ‘children’ as anyone under 18 years
• define ‘marketing’ to include any activity that promotes a product, brand or organisation, including TV, radio and print advertising, digital marketing, sports sponsorship, point of sale, on-pack and in-store promotions, and outdoor advertising including in and on public institutions and assets
• include independent and transparent monitoring for policy evaluation and enforcement

The Obesity Policy Coalition’s Brands Off Our Kids report outlines the four actions that will protect all Australian children from the food industry’s unhealthy food marketing.

Websites

Visit the Obesity Evidence Hub for key evidence on obesity trends, impacts, prevention & treatment in Australia. Access evidence related to unhealthy food marketing.

Journal Articles

• Brooks R, Christidis R, Carah N, Kelly B, Martino F, Backholer K. (2022) Turning users into ‘unofficial brand ambassadors’: marketing of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverages on TikTok. BMJ Global Health. 2022 Jun 1;7(6):e009112.
• Kelly B, Bosward R, Freeman B (2021) Australian Children’s Exposure to, and Engagement With, Web-Based Marketing of Food and Drink Brands: Cross-sectional Observational Study
  Journal of Medical Internet Research 2021;23(7):e28144
• Jones A, Shahid M, Morelli G, Howes K, Riesenberg D, Sievert K, Pettigrew S, Sacks G. Chocolate unicorns and smiling teddy biscuits: analysis of the use of child-directed marketing on the packages of Australian foods. Public Health Nutrition. 2023 Nov 14:1-2.
• Martino F, Chung A, Potter J, Heneghan T, Chisholm M, Riesenberg D, Backholer . (2021) A state-wide audit of unhealthy sponsorship within junior sporting clubs in Victoria, Australia. Public Health Nutrition, 1-21.
• Parnell A, Edmunds M, Pierce H, Stoneham MJ. (2019) The volume and type of unhealthy bus shelter advertising around schools in Perth, Western Australia: Results from an explorative study. Health Promotion Journal of Australia. 2019 Jan;30(1):88-93
• Pulker CE, Scott, JA and Pollard CM) (2017) Ultra-processed family foods in Australia: Nutrition claims, health claims and marketing techniques, Public Health Nutrition, 21(1), pp. 38–48.
• Richmond K, Watson W, Hughes C, Kelly B. (2020) Children’s trips to school dominated by unhealthy food advertising in Sydney, Australia. Public Health Research & Practice. 2020.
• Smithers LG, Haag DG, Agnew B, Lynch J, Sorell M. (2018) Food advertising on Australian television: Frequency, duration and monthly pattern of advertising from a commercial network (four channels) for the entire 2016. Journal of paediatrics and child health. 2018 Sep;54(9):962-7.
• Settle P, Cameron A, Thornton L. (2014) Socioeconomic differences in outdoor food advertising at public transit stops across Melbourne suburbs. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 2014;38(5):414-418
• Trapp G, Hooper P, Thornton L, Mandzufas J, Billingham W. (2020) Audit of outdoor food advertising near Perth schools: Building a local evidence base for chance. Australia: Telethon Kids Institute; 2020.
• Van der Bend D, Jakstas T, van Kleef E, Shrewsbury V, Bucher T. (2022) Adolescents’ exposure to and evaluation of food promotions on social media: a multi-method approach. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 19(74)
• Watson WL, Torkel S, Kat M, Hughes C. How healthy are Australian lunch box snacks with child‐directed marketing? Health Promotion Journal of Australia. 2023 Mar 20.

Reports

The Obesity Policy Coalition: Brands Off Our Kids 2020

Media

• The Conversation: No, it’s not just a lack of control that makes Australians overweight. Here’s what’s driving our unhealthy food habits. 2021.
• The Conversation: Social media platforms need to do more to stop junk food marketers targeting children. 2020.
• Obesity Policy Coalition (2019) Obesity Policy Coalition calls for removal of unhealthy food marketing on public transport to protect kids [Press Release] 23 August, 2019.