Marketing for Public Health: We Need an App for That

Marketing is well known as a powerful tool that influences consumers in their purchase behavior. Unfortunately, creative marketing approaches are not generally utilized in the area of public health. There are many consequences of this lack of effective marketing in public health, and improved communications in today's media environment are part of the solution. ********** Marketing is well known to have a powerful effect on consumers, and this power is manifested across a wide range of goods and services. In many cases, this power results in choices and actions by consumers that are clearly not in their best interests. Such power has been particularly evident over the years in the marketing of controversial products such as tobacco, alcohol and fast foods. Although many years ago, tobacco advertising dominated the airwaves, recent years have seen the fast food industry in the hot seat. In 2009, the fast food industry spent more than $4.2 billion on television advertising and other media (Harris, Schwartz and Brownell 2010). Although such marketing practices certainly have a positive effect on the pocketbooks of major companies, they are also perceived by critics to create unnecessary and often harmful wants among consumers. Nowhere is this impact more powerful than its effects on children, and in particular, in the targeting of fast food to our younger consumers. Marketing of food products in general to young people has a formidable impact and is highlighted in a 2006 summary report released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM 2006). An examination of these marketing efforts to children and adolescents found such practices to be a powerful tool in shaping eating patterns. This is hardly surprising given the Federal Trade Commission (FTC 2010) reported that a minimum of $1.6 billion is spent annually on food advertising to promote products to children and adolescents. The most heavily marketed foods were cereal and restaurant foods, followed by snacks and sodas. This same report found that fast food restaurants alone allocate about $300 million toward marketing efforts to reach children and teens, in addition to an estimated $360 million for toys distributed as premiums with children's meals (FTC 2010). The bottom line is that food, beverage and fast food restaurant industries use the media as an important channel for promoting food and beverage products that are completely inconsistent with healthy dietary patterns (IOM 2006). Faye Wong, Chief of the Program Services Branch in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted at the Marketing Disease Prevention in America Conference in Atlanta in October 2010, "The way we market and advertise food and beverages totally influences purchasing" (Marketing Disease Prevention in America [MDPA] Conference Recap 2010). Although food marketing is by no means the only contributing factor to pediatric obesity, its role is undeniable. And the consequences are grave. Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions and has been identified as a "national health crisis" (Barnes 2010). Since 1970, the number of obese children aged 6-11 has quadrupled, and the number of obese adolescents aged 12-19 has tripled (Ogden, Carroll and Flegal 2008). Nearly one-third (31.7%) of children ages 2-19 are overweight or obese (Ogden et al. 2010). Low-income and minority youth are disproportionately represented: the obesity rate among Black youth in this age category is more than 6% higher than that among Caucasians, and among Latino youths, it is more than 8% higher than that among Caucasians (Ogden et al. 2010). Although children are one of the country's most vulnerable groups, they are not the only ones affected by the marketing of unhealthy products. Since 1980, the number of obese adults has doubled (National Center for Health Statistics 2008), and more than two-thirds of our states (thirty-eight) now report adult obesity rates above 25% (www. …