Food marketing to children in Canada: a settings-based scoping review on exposure, power and impact

Abstract

Food marketing impacts children’s food knowledge, behaviours and health. Current regulations in Canada focus on restricting promotional aspects of food marketing with little-to-no consideration of the places where children experience food. Understanding food marketing in children’s everyday settings is necessary to protect children. This scoping review describes the current literature on food marketing to children in Canada by setting. The author searched databases for Canadian research on children’s exposure to food marketing, and the power and impact of food marketing to children (2-17 years) across settings, and on how current regulations may mediate the effect of food marketing on children. Peer-reviewed studies in English, published between 2000 and 2016, were included. Twenty-five studies documented children’s exposure to food marketing and its power and/or impact on them in homes (via television, or online) (n = 12), public schools (n = 1), grocery stores (n = 8), fast food restaurants (n = 2), and in general (n = 2). Research trends suggest that unhealthy foods are targeted at children using multiple promotional techniques that overlap across settings. Several research gaps exist in this area, leading to an incomplete, and potentially underestimated, picture of food marketing to children in Canada. Available evidence suggests that current Canadian approaches have not reduced children’s exposure to or the power of food marketing in these settings, with the exception of some positive influences from Quebec’s statutory regulations. The settings where children eat, buy or learn about food expose them to powerful, often unhealthy food marketing. The current evidence suggests that “place” may be an important marketing component to be included in public policy in order to broadly protect children from unhealthy food marketing. Organizations and communities can engage in settings-based health promotion interventions by developing their own marketing policies that address the promotion and place of unhealthy food and beverages.