It’s About What’s on the Outside AND What’s on the Inside That Counts
A Review of Marketing Packaged Food
Katelin Tanjuaquio
McDonald’s golden arches. Hot Cheetos’ red and yellow bag. IHOP’s short-lived name change to IHOB. These all exemplify key tenets of famous food companies’ brand and marketing strategies, whether that’s a logo, color scheme, or a specific campaign. Food companies employ spectacular brand and marketing strategies in order to best sell their products and everyone has been exposed to it in one way or another. However, brand awareness is not the only thing that marketing exposes customers to. In marketing these products well, food companies also expose customers to EDCs. This is because it is in these foods and food packaging that these EDCs are often found in. As such, this marketing of these food products without warning or regulation is harmful as it furthers the proliferation of EDC exposure and its potentially negative health outcomes.
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Marketing campaigns of EDC-laden food products and packaging specifically target marginalized communities, which contribute to health disparities. For example, in a study based upon counting advertisements in a predominantly Chinese-American neighborhood, researchers found “54.9% of food/beverage ads targeted Asian Americans through language, ethnicity of person(s) in the ad or inclusion of culturally relevant images” (Bragg et al., 2017). Because the majority of food advertisements in this area targeted Asian Americans, this exemplifies how food companies heavily tailor their campaigns towards specific communities. Because Asian Americans already have disproportionately higher rates of diet-related health conditions such as obesity and high blood pressure, increased exposure to these food products through culturally tailored marketing works to even further exacerbate the aforementioned health disparities. Moreover, because the food products advertised are fast food or highly packaged, it also drives consumers to increased exposure to EDCs as well.
This practice is far from novel; in fact, it has been employed for years. McDonald’s advertisements from the 1970s often featured Black people in order to seem more racially inclusive and attract more Black customers (Cruz, 2015). By growing their customer base to include Black people, this worked to further expose them to EDCs and subject them to the possible health effects EDCs have been associated with. Further, these advertisements were conducted without Black people working behind the scenes and, as such, they would use slang incorrectly (Cruz, 2015). This highlights how desperately food companies wanted to appeal to their target demographic without actually putting in the work to help their community. They wanted to seem inclusive simply as a business practice. However, they did more harm than good because, in doing so, it opened another door for EDC exposure.
Perhaps even more nauseating is that these marketing campaigns are often based on negative stereotypes and then further perpetuate them. For example, “General Foods proposed targeting Tang to Hispanic households because of their disproportionate consumption, responsiveness to product displays, and ‘less concern about their salt, sugar, or calorie levels’” (Harris, 2020). This highlights how large food companies utilize their consumer data to target and play off of negative stereotypes in order to sell their product. Because of these effective marketing strategies, customers unknowingly increase their risk of negative health outcomes, whether it is a result of the product or its potential for EDC exposure. While it is unknown if the health disparities are linked specifically to the food itself or the EDCs within the food and its packaging, communities are nonetheless disproportionately affected by these targeted marketing campaigns.
Because we know that marketing works effectively on the business side, this means that it can also be used to warn consumers. This can be seen through California’s Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, which calls for warnings of possible exposure to harmful chemicals on the packaging of food products (Codes Display Text, n.d.). For example, Prop 65 requires the warning of BPA in products (Bisphenol A (BPA) - Proposition 65 Warnings Website, n.d.). While it sounds beneficial in theory, the process for a chemical to be seen as harmful is a long and stringent one, making it difficult for other harmful chemicals to be warned about. This is because the research surrounding health disparities is complicated; it is unknown if the health disparities are linked specifically to the food itself or the EDCs within the food and its packaging. Nonetheless, communities are nonetheless disproportionately affected by these targeted marketing campaigns. We must push for further research and regulation of these EDCs in order to better warn consumers.
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Bisphenol A (BPA) - Proposition 65 Warnings Website. (n.d.). P65Warnings.Ca.gov. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.p65warnings.ca.gov/fact-sheets/bisphenol-bpa
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Bragg, M. A., Pageot, Y. K., Hernandez-Villareal, O., Kaplan, S. A., & Kwon, S. C. (2017, June 7). Content analysis of targeted food and beverage advertisements in a Chinese-American neighbourhood. Public Health Nutrition, 20(12), 2208-2214. Cambridge. 10.1017/S1368980017001070
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Codes Display Text. (n.d.). Codes Display Text. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&division=20.&title=&part=&chapter=6.6.&article
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Cruz, L. (2015, June 7). 'Dinnertimin' and 'No Tipping': How Advertisers Targeted Black Consumers in the 1970s. The Atlantic. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/06/casual-racism-and-greater-diversity-in-70s-advertising/394958/
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Harris, J. L. (2020, March). Targeted food marketing to black and hispanic consumers: The tobacco playbook. Am J Public Health, 3(110), 271-272. ProQueset. http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305518