142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Unhealthy food-and-beverage advertising in subway stations -- targeted marketing to vulnerable groups

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM

Sean C. Lucan, MD, MPH, MS , Department of Family and Social Medicine, Albert EInstein College of Medicine / Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY
Andrew Maroko, PhD , Department of Health Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx, NY
Omar Sanon , -, College of Arts and Sciences, New York University, New York, NY
Andrew Carmona , New York University, New York, NY
Clyde Schechter, MD , Department of Family and Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
  
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
INTRODUCTION: Unhealthy-food/beverage advertising often targets vulnerable groups.  The extent of such advertising on mass transit has not been reported. We sought to characterize all print advertising in Bronx subway stations and consider potential implications of ad content and placement for surrounding communities.

METHODS: Researchers rode all Bronx subway lines, assessing all ads in all stations. Data about surrounding neighborhoods (census tracts) came from the U.S. Census and city health department.  Data on subway ridership came from the city transit authority. 

RESULTS: Across all 68 subway stations there were 1,588 print ads.  Each subway station had 0-106 ads (or up to 226 ads counting duplicates).  Ads were for 146 brands/organizations, 11 of which (7.4%) were unhealthy-food/beverage brands (e.g., candy, ice-cream, sugary-beverage, snack-chip, fast-food, alcohol).  The amount of total ad exposure (number of ads x size of each) was directly correlated with station ridership, but the proportion of unhealthy-foods/beverage-ad exposure was inversely correlated with ridership (suggesting targeted marketing, not marketing to the widest audience).  Unhealthy-food/beverage ads disproportionately featured children (p<0.01), were in languages other than English (p=0.002), and appeared in neighborhoods with lower high-school graduation rates (p=0.03)--and although not quite reaching statistical significance, neighborhoods with more poverty (p=0.057), higher mean sugar-sweetened-beverage consumption (p=0.053), and higher mean blood pressure and cholesterol levels (p=0.053).

DISCUSSION: Unhealthy-food/beverage ads were more likely to be in neighborhoods with greater socioeconomic challenges and possibly diet and diet-related-health challenges, with most ads geared toward youth in high-immigrant areas.  Ad content and placement suggested targeted marketing to vulnerable groups.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe the extent, type, and distribution of unhealthy food-and-beverage advertisements in stations of a subway system Demonstrate associations between unhealthy food-and-beverage advertising in subway stations and characteristics of the neighborhoods where stations are located (i.e., demographic, diet, and diet-related health characteristics)

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a public-health researcher, focusing on how different aspects of urban food environments may influence what people eat, and what the implications are for obesity and chronic diseases, particularly in low-income and minority communities.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4130.0: Food marketing matters for health