Sugar marketing

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Sugar is heavily marketed both by sugar producers and the producers of sugary drinks and foods. Apart from direct marketing methods such as messaging on packaging, television ads, advergames, and product placement in setting like blogs, industry has worked to steer coverage of sugar-related health information in popular media, including news media and social media.[1][2][3]

Sugar refiners and manufacturers of sugary foods and drinks have also sought to influence medical research and public health recommendations,[4][5] The results of research on the health effects of sugary food and drink differ significantly, depending on whether the researcher has financial ties to the food and drink industry.[6][7][8] The authors of a 2016 review[6] of funding bias concluded that "This industry seems to be manipulating contemporary scientific processes to create controversy and advance their business interests at the expense of the public's health".

History

In the early 1950s, sugar was marketed as a healthy substance that would help curb hunger and provide an energy boost.[9] More recent methods are necessarily less direct. Methods of marketing sugary products include:[10]

  • marketing high-sugar versions of established low-sugar brands as flavour variations
  • using words associated with health, such as "healthy", "natural", "naturally sweetened" and "lightly sweetened"
  • using associations with fruit to imply healthiness
  • shill advertising, through front groups and individuals with no obvious connection to the sugar industry, including people presenting themselves as independent scientists
  • targeting women, who make many food purchasing decisions
  • targeting children; below age seven, they have difficulty recognizing persuasive intent, and below the age of twelve, they are more easily distracted from it than adults. Almost a quarter of food industry advertising money is spend on advertising to children
  • positioning sugary drinks and foods as a freedom-of-choice issue rather than a public health one

Labelling

Sugar is added to ingredients lists under dozens of different names,[11] which, where ingredients lists are in order from largest to smallest quantity, can let sugars appear spuriously lower on the ingredients list.[12]

2016 US nutritional labelling changes

In 2016, the FDA enacted new requirements for US nutrition labels, which include calorie count in larger type and a separate line for added sugars.[13] By July 2018 most manufacturers will need to use the new label.

The new FDA requirements were initially proposed in 2014, they met with strong opposition from sugar and sugary food producers. Industry claimed the new rule lacked any scientific justification.[13] Many specific companies also wrote letters requesting certain products to be exempt from the rule. The head of Ocean Spray Cranberries wrote a letter to the FDA explaining that cranberries without sugar are "unpalatable" and claimed that they needed to be an exception to the bill. The American Beverage Association wanted the measurement on the back of their labels to be in grams instead of teaspoons, saying that teaspoon measurements would carry a negative connotation that misrepresents the factual nature of nutritional information.[citation needed]

The changes had bipartisan support; George W. Bush supported the FDA in its request for the legislation, and, after it was enacted under Barack Obama, said that the government had "got this right".[13][14]

Campaigns to lower sugar consumption

A community campaign in Howard County, Maryland used the media to influence the attitudes and behaviors about the relationship between sugary drinks and obesity. The "Howard County Unsweetened" campaign used social media, television ads, in-person marketing, and community organizations to encourage people to drink less sugary drinks, and promoted water as a substitute.[15][16] This campaign was modeled after a study done in Portland, Oregon that found community based interventions were successful in influencing consumers likelihood of purchasing sugary drinks in supermarkets. Researchers associated sugary drinks with obesity, heart disease, and diabetes to influence the attitudes of the consumers and the purchasing behaviors of consumers.[citation needed]

Sugar taxes

Main article: Sugary drink tax

Sugar taxes have been used to reduce the consumption of sugary drinks, often in combination with public information campaigns.

A 2010 study of a sugar taxes in the US found that they decreased consumption of taxed drinks, but increased the consumption of untaxed high-calorie drinks, removing the benefit.[17]

In Mexico, sugary drink consumption dropped after a public health campaign including a sugar tax came in in 2014, and dropped further a year later.[18][19] A 2015 tax in Berkeley, California had a similar effect,[20][21] although overall grocery spending did not decline.[22] In 2016, the far larger city of Philadelphia brought in a sugar tax to fund children's programs.[23][24]

See also

References

  1. ^ O’Connor, Anahad (9 August 2015). "Coca-Cola Funds Scientists Who Shift Blame for Obesity Away From Bad Diets". Well. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  2. ^ Lipton, Eric (11 February 2014). "Rival Industries Sweet-Talk the Public". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  3. ^ Sifferlin, Alexandra (10 October 2016). "Soda Companies Fund 96 Health Groups In the U.S." Time. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  4. ^ Mozaffarian, Dariush (2 May 2017). "Conflict of Interest and the Role of the Food Industry in Nutrition Research". JAMA. 317 (17): 1755–1756. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.3456. ISSN 0098-7484. PMID 28464165.
  5. ^ Anderson, P.; Miller, D. (11 February 2015). "Commentary: Sweet policies". BMJ. 350 (feb10 16): –780–h780. doi:10.1136/bmj.h780. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 25672619.
  6. ^ a b Schillinger, Dean; Tran, Jessica; Mangurian, Christina; Kearns, Cristin (20 December 2016). "Do Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Cause Obesity and Diabetes? Industry and the Manufacture of Scientific Controversy" (PDF). Annals of Internal Medicine. 165 (12): 895–897. doi:10.7326/L16-0534. ISSN 0003-4819. PMID 27802504. Retrieved 21 March 2018.(orignal url, paywalled: Author's conflict of interest disclosure forms)
  7. ^ Bes-Rastrollo, Maira; Schulze, Matthias B.; Ruiz-Canela, Miguel; Martinez-Gonzalez, Miguel A. (2013). "Financial conflicts of interest and reporting bias regarding the association between sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain: a systematic review of systematic reviews". PLoS Medicine. 10 (12): –1001578. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001578. PMC 3876974. PMID 24391479.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  8. ^ O’Connor, Anahad (31 October 2016). "Studies Linked to Soda Industry Mask Health Risks". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  9. ^ "8 Insane Vintage Ads That Make Sugar Seem Like A Health Food". Business Insider. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  10. ^ Bailin, Deborah; Goldman, Gretchen; Phartiyal, Pallavi (2014). Sugar-coating science: How the Food Industry Misleads Consumers on Sugar (Report). Union of Concerned Scientists. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  11. ^ "Different Words for Sugar on Food Labels". Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  12. ^ Boston, 677 Huntington Avenue; Ma 02115 +1495‑1000 (5 August 2013). "Added Sugar in the Diet". The Nutrition Source. Retrieved 3 September 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ a b c Tavernise, Sabrina (20 May 2016). "F.D.A. Finishes Food Labels for How We Eat Now". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  14. ^ Tavernise, Sabrina (27 February 2014). "New F.D.A. Nutrition Labels Would Make 'Serving Sizes' Reflect Actual Servings". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  15. ^ Schwartz, Marlene B.; Schneider, Glenn E.; Choi, Yoon-Young; Li, Xun; Harris, Jennifer; Andreyeva, Tatiana; Hyary, Maia; Vernick, Nicolette Highsmith; Appel, Lawrence J. (1 May 2017). "Association of a Community Campaign for Better Beverage Choices With Beverage Purchases From Supermarkets". JAMA Internal Medicine. 177 (5): 666–674. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.9650. ISSN 2168-6106. PMC 5470385. PMID 28264077. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  16. ^ "Sugary drink sales drop nearly 20 percent after multi-faceted campaign". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  17. ^ Fletcher, Jason M.; Frisvold, David E.; Tefft, Nathan (1 December 2010). "The effects of soft drink taxes on child and adolescent consumption and weight outcomes". Journal of Public Economics. 94 (11): 967–974. doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.09.005. ISSN 0047-2727.
  18. ^ Colchero, M. Arantxa; Rivera-Dommarco, Juan; Popkin, Barry M.; Ng, Shu Wen (2 August 2017). "In Mexico, Evidence Of Sustained Consumer Response Two Years After Implementing A Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax". Health Affairs. 36 (3): 564–571. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1231. PMC 5442881. PMID 28228484.
  19. ^ O'Connor, Anahad (6 January 2016). "Mexican Soda Tax Followed by Drop in Sugary Drink Sales". Well. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  20. ^ "Berkeley soda tax takes a big gulp out of sugary-drink sales". Reuters. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  21. ^ Silver, Lynn D.; Ng, Shu Wen; Ryan-Ibarra, Suzanne; Taillie, Lindsey Smith; Induni, Marta; Miles, Donna R.; Poti, Jennifer M.; Popkin, Barry M. (18 April 2017). "Changes in prices, sales, consumer spending, and beverage consumption one year after a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Berkeley, California, US: A before-and-after study". PLOS Medicine. 14 (4): –1002283. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002283. ISSN 1549-1676. PMC 5395172. PMID 28419108.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  22. ^ Boseley, Sarah (18 April 2017). "First US sugar tax sees soft drink sales fall by almost 10%, study shows". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  23. ^ "Philadelphia becomes first major US city with a soda tax". The Guardian. 16 June 2016. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  24. ^ Boseley, Sarah (18 April 2017). "First US sugar tax sees soft drink sales fall by almost 10%, study shows". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 September 2018.

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