British Heart Foundation - How junk food companies target your kids

How junk food companies target your kids

Social networking is the latest big thing on the internet. From chat rooms to full-blown virtual worlds, these sites give children the chance to talk to each other – usually without the interruption of adults. But the advertisers have caught on. Junk food companies are starting to take advantage of these sites and are increasingly using them to target young people.

What’s more, junk food companies can use these sites to capture data on young consumers, not just who they are and where they are from, but also how they behave online. The more they know about your kids, the better they can sell to them.

Here are some examples...

Skittles created a branded profile on the Bebo social networking site in 2007 with ads all over it. The site is popular with teenagers and over 13,000 users entered a competition to create their own Skittles sketch, with the best sketch becoming a TV ad. The marketers really know what they’re doing here – designing the profile so that children will keep returning and seeing adverts that encourage them to buy high sugar products.

Coca-Cola have branded profiles on two of the most popular social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace. These profiles allow young people to become 'friends' of Coca-Cola and receive offers, making them more likely to buy Coke’s high sugar, high caffeine drinks. They also offer layouts that young people can put on their own profiles, so that their own web presence is branded by Coca-Cola. Nice touch.