“Grab gatorade!”: food marketing, regulation and the young consumer

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine current regulatory initiatives on food marketing to young people and to highlight unique considerations when it comes to teenagers.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper integrates the policy and public health literature with the literature on childhood studies and consumer studies.

Findings

Since the policy goal is to mitigate the impact of food marketing on young people’s attitudes and behaviours, it is necessary to recognize the consumer competencies of teenagers and consider the social and symbolic meanings of food for them. It is suggested that radical media literacy, coupled with food literacy, is essential to navigating a complex food environment filled with promotional messages for ultra-processed foods.

Research limitations/implications

This analysis has implications for policy development.

Practical implications

Consideration of age – in terms of different developmental competencies, motivating factors and additional initiatives to support healthy eating (such as teaching media literacy skills) – is necessary to policy development related to food marketing to children.

Originality/value

Little research integrates the literature on food policy/regulation with the critical work on consumer studies/childhood studies. This commentary also directs attention to novel areas of consideration related to teenagers and food marketing.

Citation

Elliott, C. (2018), "“Grab gatorade!”: food marketing, regulation and the young consumer", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 52 No. 12, pp. 2520-2531. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-05-2018-0355