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Khan_2025_CUP_S1368980025101006
Journal article

Analysing celebrity and influencer marketing of food and beverages to adolescents on Instagram

  • Khan, Rida ORCID Istituto di comunicazione e politiche pubbliche (ICPP), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • Tanweer, Afifa Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
  • Suggs, L Suzanne ORCID Istituto di comunicazione e politiche pubbliche (ICPP), Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
  • 2025
Published in:
  • Public Health Nutrition. - 2025, vol. 28, no. 1, p. e144
Teenagers
Instagram
Food
Advertisement
Marketing
Social Media
Digital
English Objective: To assess the nutritional quality of foods and beverages (F&B) advertised to adolescents and analyse marketing techniques and persuasive appeals used by celebrities and influencers on Instagram. Design: A content analysis study was conducted using the WHO’s CLICK Monitoring Framework and Nutrient Profile Model. Setting: Instagram, a popular social media platform among adolescents with frequent F&B advertisements by celebrities and influencers. Participants: The top forty-eight Instagram accounts of celebrities and influencers posting F&B advertisements were selected based on follower count and engagement metrics. Nutrient profiling of advertised F&B (n 344) and content analysis of posts featuring F&B (n 326) between January 2021 and May 2023 were performed. Data collected included characteristics of celebrities and influencers, marketing techniques, online engagement and persuasive appeals in the posts. Results: Carbonated beverages and flavored waters (28·5 %), energy drinks (20·6 %) and ready-made foods (15·4 %) were most frequently advertised, with the majority (89·2 %) of products not permitted for advertisement to adolescents, according to WHO. Common marketing techniques included tagging brand (96·9 %) and using brand logo (94·2 %). The most frequently used persuasive appeals were taste (20·9 %), energy (10·7 %), link to sports events (10·7 %), new product (9·5 %) and fun (7·4 %). Conclusion: Most F&B advertised on Instagram by celebrities and influencers are prohibited from being advertised to adolescents by the WHO. This highlights the need for stricter regulation of user-generated content and for users and parents to be better educated about persuasive techniques used on social media to make them less vulnerable to the influence of marketing.
Collections
Language
  • English
Classification
Social sciences
License
CC BY
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1335400
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