Background/Aims: Australian adolescents are bombarded with unhealthy food and drink marketing across multiple settings. The pervasive promotion of energy-dense, nutrient-poor products undermines adolescent and parent/carer efforts to maintain a nutritious diet during a crucial developmental and dietary habit-formation period. This study examined the association between awareness of food and drink advertisements and adolescents’ dietary choices and intake.
Methods: A nationally representative sample of secondary school students aged 12-17 years (N=8,763) self-reported their frequency of awareness of food and drink advertisements across seven settings (website, social media, public transport, school, magazine, supermarket, sporting event), whether they had tried a new product or asked a parent/carer to purchase a product they had seen advertised, and consumption of various unhealthy food types (sweet foods, fast foods, confectionery, ice cream, salty snacks, fried potato products) and drink types (fruit juice, soft drinks, cordials, sports drinks, diet drinks, non-alcohol energy drinks). Analyses were conducted using multi-level logistic regression adjusted for school-level clustering, socio-demographic factors and commercial TV viewing.
Results: On average, students reported seeing food and drink advertisements 14 times a week across all settings. The likelihood of trying a new product they had seen advertised was greater among students with medium (AOR=1.74, 95%CI=1.56-1.94, p<0.001) or high (AOR=2.32, 95%CI=2.07-2.59, p<0.001) marketing awareness compared with low marketing awareness. As awareness of food and drink advertisements increased, so too did students’ likelihood of requesting an advertised product. Frequency of food and drink marketing awareness was also associated with a high unhealthy food and drink intake.
Conclusions: Findings suggest that Australian adolescents are vulnerable to the persuasive effects of food and drink marketing, with higher frequency of marketing awareness linked to trying and requesting advertised products and poorer dietary behaviours. Higher standards in the way the food and drink industry can market products to adolescents are needed.