Describe the Purpose of the research
The purpose of this research is to outline the discrepancies in unhealthy food advertising directed towards Hispanic and Black consumers in general and the comparatively large allocations of television advertising budgets to targeted television programs. The research determines the effectiveness of advertising directed towards Hispanic children and teenagers and investigates food-related television advertisements Hispanic adolescents watch on Spanish-language broadcast television channels (Harris et al. 4). Additionally, the research aims to identify advertising directed towards Black children and adolescents and compare advertisements watched between Black youth and White youth to determine improbable exposure across all forms of television programming.
How was data collected? Who was being studied?
Using Nielsen syndicated market research data, the researchers determined overall television advertising expenditures and targeted media platforms. The quantity of food-related advertising seen by Hispanic children and adolescents on Spanish-language television and Black and White teenagers on all television shows was also evaluated using Nielsen data (Harris et al. 4). To find examples of focused marketing campaigns for particular racial or ethnic groups, the researchers also collected and analyzed public comments made by firms about their targeted marketing strategies.
Describe the Overall Trends in food-related advertising
There was a 4% decrease in the overall amount of money spent by firms to promote restaurants, food, and drinks on all sorts of television programming between 2013 and 2017. However, a significant decrease in television watching by children and adolescents led to significant decreases in exposure to food-related television advertisements. Despite this drop, children and teenagers saw an average of 10 food-related television commercials every day in 2017 (Harris et al. 5). In addition, during the past five years, Hispanic youth’s television viewing habits and exposure to food-related advertisements have declined, with total food-related advertising spend on Spanish-language television falling by 4%.
However, between 2013 and 2017, there was a 50 percent increase in food-related advertising on Black-targeted television. The disparity in exposure to all food-related television commercials between Black and White kids has also increased. In 2013, the number of food advertising seen by Black children and teenagers was 70% more than that of White counterparts. Disparities in time spent viewing television increased in 2017, where Black children and teenagers watched television 61% and 84% respectively than White children and teenagers (Harris et al. 5). Food advertising was also more prevalent in 2017 than in 2013 among the television programs that Black kids watched.
Explain the trends in terms of company, brand, and product category.
Targeted Advertising by Company
In 2017, 32 firms accounted for 69 percent of all food-related advertising expenditure, and only one company, Mars, has been stated to target Black customers deliberately. As part of their corporate social responsibility programs, several businesses also explored sponsorships and scholarships for Black and Hispanic children. Even though many of these companies had their nutrition, health, and wellness initiatives simultaneously. The only company to state that a health and wellness campaign targeted clients of color was Nestlé (Harris et al. 5). All companies studied increased their spending on black-targeted television advertising from 2013 to 2017, including PepsiCo, Yum! Domino’s, and Roark Capital Group, which each had a spending rise of over 30%.
Targeted Advertising by Brands
The investigation found that 32 firms supplied 236 highly marketed brands. Fast-food restaurant companies rated first in targeted advertising expenditure because their overall advertising budgets were often larger than those of their competitors. Most widely marketed companies seemed to target Black and Hispanic customers, whereas one-third did not appear to target either group (Harris et al. 7). Only two of the 22 restaurant companies did not target Hispanic and Black customers, making restaurants the most targeted brand.
Targeted Advertising by Product Category
Food-related advertising watched by Hispanic children and adolescents on Spanish-language television and 71% and 76% of advertisements viewed by Black children and Black teens respectively on all television programs were highly marketed companies in these categories. These categories accounted for a somewhat smaller percentage of commercials watched by White children and teenagers. Trends in a few of these areas are also cause for alarm. From 2013 to 2017, there was an increase of Hispanic children’s exposure to restaurant commercials on Spanish-language television by 8%, whereas exposure of Black children to restaurant advertisements increased by 30%. Moreover, a fifth of the food-related TV advertising teenagers and Hispanic children on Spanish-language television was for candy. After adjusting for disparities in television watching periods, black children and teenagers watched more candy advertisements than white children and teenagers by more than 40% (Harris et al. 7). More than 30% more TV advertising for snacks was shown to Black teens than to White teens, further indicating racial disparity.
What Media theories/class concepts help our understanding of this research
- Brand-level data is aggregated into totals by product category. This examines the systemic differences in the type of issues advertised to Hispanic and Black consumers in general and exposure to these ads by Hispanic and Black children and adolescents in particular.
- Corporations that advertise the most for fast food, sugary drinks, sweets, and unhealthy snacks geared towards Hispanic and African-American teens tout corporate responsibility initiatives to encourage nutrition or health and wellbeing.
What are the Limitations of the Study?
Although the study looked at 32 firms that accounted for the bulk of food-related advertising in 2017, it did not evaluate the hundreds of other firms with lower advertising expenditure. The research found that just 59% of firms in our study spent money on Black-targeted TV advertising. However, some of these smaller companies seem to spend a lot of money on Black-targeted TV advertising. The study also looked at television advertisements, accounting for 72% of food firms’ advertising budgets. The study did not conduct a comprehensive investigation of targeting in other marketing kinds, such as sponsorships, digital media, and retail promotions (Harris et al. 9). The study did not conduct a nutrient analysis of foods sold by targeted brands. Past studies have shown that products in the highly targeted category are of poor nutritional quality.
Work Cited
Harris, Jennifer L, et al. Increasing disparities in unhealthy food advertising targeted to Hispanic and Black youth. University of Connecticut Press, 2019.