Food marketing on digital platforms: what do teens see?

OBJECTIVE: Given the aggressive marketing of foods and beverages to teenagers on digital platforms, and the paucity of research documenting teen engagement with food marketing and its persuasive content, the objective of this study is to examine what teenagers see as teen-targeted food marketing on four popular digital platforms and to provide insight into the persuasive power of that marketing. DESIGN: This is an exploratory, participatory research study, in which teenagers used a special mobile app to capture all teen-targeted food and beverage marketing they saw on digital media for 7 d. For each ad, participants identified the brand, product and specific appeals that made it teen-targeted, as well as the platform on which it was found. SETTING: Online (digital media) with teenagers in Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred and seventy-eight teenagers, aged 13-17 years, were participated. Most participants were girls (63 %) and older teenagers (58 % aged 16-17 years). RESULTS: Participants captured 1392 teen-targeted food advertisements from Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. The greatest number of food marketing examples came from Instagram (46 %) (with no difference across genders or age), while beverages (28·7 %), fast food (25·1 %) and candy/chocolate were the top categories advertised. When it comes to persuasive power, visual style was the top choice across all platforms and participants, with other top techniques (special offer, theme and humour), ranking differently, depending on age, gender and platform. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insight into the nature of digital food marketing and its persuasive power for teenagers, highlighting considerations of selection and salience when it comes to examining food marketing and monitoring.

Experiences and perceived outcomes of a grocery gift card programme for households at risk of food insecurity.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored programme recipients' and deliverers' experiences and perceived outcomes of accessing or facilitating a grocery gift card (GGC) programme from I Can for Kids (iCAN), a community-based programme that provides GGC to low-income families with children. DESIGN: This qualitative descriptive study used Freedman et al's framework of nutritious food access to guide data generation and analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between August and November 2020. Data were analysed using directed content analysis with a deductive-inductive approach. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-four participants were purposively recruited, including thirty-seven programme recipients who accessed iCAN's GGC programme and seventeen programme deliverers who facilitated it. SETTING: Calgary, Alberta, Canada. RESULTS: Three themes were generated from the data. First, iCAN's GGC programme promoted a sense of autonomy and dignity among programme recipients as they appreciated receiving financial support, the flexibility and convenience of using GGC, and the freedom to select foods they desired. Recipients perceived these benefits improved their social and emotional well-being. Second, recipients reported that the use of GGC improved their households' dietary patterns and food skills. Third, both participant groups identified programmatic strengths and limitations. CONCLUSION: Programme recipients reported that iCAN's GGC programme provided them with dignified access to nutritious food and improved their households' finances, dietary patterns, and social and emotional well-being. Increasing the number of GGC provided to households on each occasion, establishing clear and consistent criteria for distributing GGC to recipients, and increasing potential donors' awareness of iCAN's GGC programme may augment the amount of support iCAN could provide to households.

Tracking teen food marketing: Participatory research to examine persuasive power and platforms of exposure.

Food marketing has long been recognized to influence children's food preferences and consumption patterns, yet only in recent years have teenagers been recognized as a uniquely vulnerable audience for food marketing appeals. Marketing pressures on teenagers around food promotion continue to intensify, yet little is known about the marketing channels and specific persuasive appeals targeting this audience. Given this research gap, this participatory research study engages teenagers to capture the food marketing targeting them and to identify its persuasive "power" and platforms of exposure. Using a specially designed mobile app called GrabFM! (Grab Food Marketing!) teenagers (ages 13-17, n = 309) identified and tagged examples of teen-targeted food marketing in their physical and digital environments over a 7-day period. Results reveal that: 1) digital platforms dominate teen-targeted food marketing, with over three quarters of the ads found on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, ad YouTube; 2) branded beverages, fast food, and candy/chocolate comprise the majority (72%) of ads; and 3) the most powerful techniques for attracting teens attention are visual style, special offer and theme. In 40% of advertisements submitted, teenagers used only one indicator to identify "teen-targeted", although older teenagers (ages 15-17) were more likely to report multiple indicators per ad. This study provides important insights into the platforms targeting teenagers (and their relative importance), the food products endorsed, and the specific appeals that teenagers find persuasive. For the purposes of monitoring, it is helpful to know that digital platforms comprise the majority of teen-directed food promotions, and that the Big Food brands have been joined by countless smaller players to sell food to teens.

Educating for Children's Health: Lessons Learned on Facilitating Media Literacy & Food Marketing Programming.

Food marketing is currently a multi-billion dollar industry. High levels of child-targeted food marketing, including on food packaging, suggests the need for media literacy skills to navigate persuasive techniques on food products. Evidence-based educational content on the topic of Media Literacy & Food Marketing (MLFM) was developed for children in Grades 3 to 9. This MLFM content has been taught to thousands of Canadian children across Canada, both in-person and virtually. This Practice Note highlights key strategies and lessons from implementing the program, and provides valuable insights into effective methods for empowering children's critical thinking around food promotion.

Food Promotion and Children's Health: Considering Best Practices for Teaching and Evaluating Media Literacy on Food Marketing.

Food marketing to children is ubiquitous and persuasive. It primarily promotes foods of poor nutritional quality, influences children's food preferences and habits, and is a factor in childhood obesity. Given that food marketing relentlessly targets children in traditional/digital media and the built environment, children need critical media literacy skills that build their understanding of food marketing's persuasive effects. However, little research connects media literacy with food marketing and health, including effective strategies for teaching and evaluating such programming for children. This perspective presents the outcomes of a stakeholder meeting on best practices in teaching and evaluation on media literacy and food marketing to children. Strategies for promoting critical thinking (teaching content, teaching practices, teaching supports, and parent/caregiver involvement), and strategies for measuring critical thinking (program effectiveness and broader long-term impacts) were identified. These include, among other things, the need to capture the range of marketing formats and current food promotion trends, to include inquiry-based and co-creation activities, and to support ongoing media literacy development. Overall, these strategies suggest useful criteria for media literacy programming related to food marketing, and highlight the importance of media literacy for giving children the skills to navigate a complex food environment.

Food Marketing and Power: Teen-Identified Indicators of Targeted Food Marketing.

Food marketing is powerful and prevalent, influencing young people's food attitudes, preferences, and dietary habits. Teenagers are aggressively targeted by unhealthy food marketing messages across a range of platforms, prompting recognition of the need to monitor such marketing. To monitor, criteria for what counts as teen-targeted food marketing content (i.e., persuasive techniques) must first be established. This exploratory study engaged teenagers to explore the "power" of food marketing by identifying what they consider to be teen-targeted marketing techniques within various food marketing examples. Fifty-four teenagers (ages 13-17) participated in a tagging exercise of 19 pre-selected food/beverage advertisements. Assessed in light of age and gender, the results showed clear consistency with what indicators the participants identified when it comes to selecting "teen-targeted" ads-with advertisements most frequently chosen as "teen-targeted" containing humor (particularly irony) and celebrities. When it comes to specific indicators used by teenagers, visual style dominated, standing as the marketing technique with the most "power" for teenagers. The findings shed much needed insight into the elements of power-and more precisely, the specific marketing techniques persuasive to teenagers-which are necessary to inform monitoring efforts and to create evidence-based policy.

Testing a Mobile App for Participatory Research to Identify Teen-Targeted Food Marketing: Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Mobile apps are not only effective tools for promoting health to teenagers but are also useful for engaging teenagers in participatory research on factors that influence their health. Given the impact of food marketing messages on teenagers' food attitudes and consumption choices, it is important to develop effective methods for capturing the food advertisements targeted at this population to assess their content. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to test the feasibility and usability of a mobile app, "GrabFM!" ("Grab Food Marketing!"), designed for teenagers to facilitate monitoring of self-identified targeted food marketing messaging. METHODS: A mixed methods approach, including quantitative user response rates and qualitative focus group discussion feedback, was used in the evaluation process. RESULTS: A total of 62 teenagers (ages 13-17) completed GrabFM! app pilot testing over a 7-day data collection period. Teenagers submitted a total of 339 examples of food marketing, suggesting high feasibility for the app. Participants also took part in focus group discussions about their experience, providing positive feedback on usability, including ease of use and design aesthetic appeal. CONCLUSIONS: The GrabFM! app had high feasibility and usability, suggesting its efficacy in capturing accurate data relevant to the teenage population's experience with food marketing messaging.

Cannabis edibles packaging: Communicative objects in a growing market.

BACKGROUND: Cannabis edibles were legalized for recreational use across Canada in October 2019. The Canadian Cannabis Act requires legally produced edibles to be sold in plain single-color packages with limited branded elements and prominent health warning labels, serving size and nutritional information, and product ingredients including amounts of cannabis compounds. Little research, however, assesses what consumers think of standardized packaging, and how product packaging influences perceptions of cannabis edibles. METHODS: Eight focus groups with young adults (ages 18-24; n = 57) were conducted in November 2018. Participants were recruited from a Canadian university, and asked to assess sample images of cannabis packaging approved by Health Canada. They then discussed the information they would like to see on packages. Focus group discussions were transcribed and analyzed using a descriptive, qualitative approach following methods of process evaluation and inductive coding. RESULTS: Discussions generally pertained to four main themes: dosage and consumption recommendations; food and nutritional information; concerns for children; and health warning labels. Participants suggested improvements for cannabis packaging, including standardized THC units, non-numerical consumption instructions, and unit-dose packaging. Instead of recommending packaging that deters consumption, participants requested packaging features that promote safe consumption by adults while also protecting children. Findings reveal how packages function as communicative objects that convey meanings about safety and risk, yet these meanings may not resonate with Canadian young adults' perceptions of cannabis as relatively safe. CONCLUSIONS: While the packaging regulated for use in Canada may be assumed, due to its plain, standardized format, to communicate "little", we highlight tensions in the meanings of such packaging to young adults-especially around competing ideas related to safety and risk.

Experiences and Perceived Outcomes of Low-Income Adults During and After Participating in the British Columbia Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: The British Columbia Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) is a farmers' market food subsidy program that provides low-income households with coupons valued at $21/wk for 16 weeks to purchase healthy foods at participating BC Association of Farmers' Markets members' markets. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore changes, differences, and similarities in participants' experiences and perceived short-term outcomes during and after participating in the FMNCP. DESIGN: A longitudinal qualitative research approach was used to conduct a recurrent cross-sectional analysis. Data generation and analysis were guided by Freedman et al's theoretical framework of nutritious food access. Data generation occurred during 2019 FMNCP program (time 1) and 4 to 7 weeks after (time 2) the program year ended. Data at each time point were analyzed separately using directed content analysis, followed by a comparative analysis to identify changes, differences, and similarities between time points. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-eight adult participants were interviewed during the program; 24 were re-interviewed post program. SETTING: Three communities in British Columbia, Canada. RESULTS: Three themes were generated: temporary relief and engagement; lasting experiences and outcomes; enhancing participant experiences and outcomes. The first theme related to how participants' experiences and perceived outcomes, such as increased financial support and improved diet quality and health, were temporary. The second theme reflected positive lasting experiences and outcomes from participating in the FMNCP, including increased food and nutrition knowledge and enhanced social ties. The third theme focused on enhancing participants' program experiences and outcomes, including increasing the duration of food subsidies. CONCLUSION: The FMNCP temporarily enhanced access to nutritious foods and had lasting positive effects on participants' nutrition-related knowledge and social outcomes. Nevertheless, participants struggled to maintain healthy eating practices post program due to financial constraints. Expanding farmers' market subsidy programs may improve access to nutritious foods; maintain positive dietary, social, and health outcomes for participants; and reach more low-income households.

Food marketing to teenagers: Examining the power and platforms of food and beverage marketing in Canada.

Marketing pressure on teenagers when it comes to promoting unhealthy foods and food brands is a significant public health concern. Teenagers are aggressively targeted by food marketing messages, yet a research gap exists when it comes to the engagement by teens with this marketing in real world settings, and specific techniques (or power) used to capture their attention. This exploratory study engages in participatory research to explore the persuasive power and platforms of exposure of teen-targeted food marketing. Using an innovative smartphone app called "GrabFM!" ("Grab Food Marketing!"), teens ages 13-17 (n = 62) identified and tagged examples (n = 339) of targeted food marketing (from mainstream and digital media, and the built environment) over a 7-day period, providing information on the food brand, product, platform, and indicators (i.e., persuasive techniques). Results revealed the top brand (FritoLay, 8.3%), food product category (candy/chocolate, 23.3%), platform of exposure (Instagram, 76.4%), and indicator (visual style, 52.5%) identified by teens. Insights were also gained into the intersection of gender and platform, gender, age and indicators (older teens 15+ more likely to report multiple indicators per ad), and co-occurrence of indicators (majority of ads tagged with one indicator only). The results of this study provide guidance on the power, platforms and brands that teens felt uniquely spoke to them. When it comes to monitoring efforts, it is useful to know that Instagram commands teenagers' attention and that marketing power resides in particular indicators (visual style, special offer, theme), which teenagers appear to readily and consistently identify.

'My coupons are like gold': experiences and perceived outcomes of low-income adults participating in the British Columbia Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program.

OBJECTIVE: The British Columbia Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) provides low-income households with coupons valued at $21/week for 16 weeks to purchase healthy foods in farmers' markets. Our objective was to explore FMNCP participants' experiences of accessing nutritious foods, and perceived programme outcomes. DESIGN: The current study used qualitative description methodology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with FMNCP participants during the 2019 farmers' market season. Directed content analysis was used to analyse the data, whereby the five domains of Freedman et al.'s framework of nutritious food access provided the basis for an initial coding scheme. Data that did not fit within the framework's domains were coded inductively. SETTING: One urban and two rural communities in British Columbia, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-eight adults who were participating in the FMNCP. RESULTS: Three themes emerged: autonomy and dignity, social connections and community building, and environmental and programmatic constraints. Firstly, the programme promoted a sense of autonomy and dignity through financial support, increased access to high-quality produce, food-related education and skill development and mitigating stigma and shame. Secondly, shopping in farmers' markets increased social connections and fostered a sense of community. Finally, participants experienced limited food variety in rural farmers' markets, lack of transportation and challenges with redeeming coupons. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in the FMNCP facilitated access to nutritious foods and enhanced participants' diet quality, well-being and health. Strategies such as increasing the amount and duration of subsidies and expanding programmes may help improve participants' experiences and outcomes of farmers' market food subsidy programmes.

Monitoring the Power of Child-Targeted Food Packaging: a Review of the Literature.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Given the need to limit unhealthy food marketing to children, more information is required around strategies for its monitoring. Child-directed food packaging, in particular, requires special consideration: packaging drives decision-making at the point-of-sale and is a powerful means of capturing children's attention. This review examines and summarizes literature that monitors the "power" (persuasive techniques) of packaging, in order to assess what these broader strategies contribute to monitoring child-targeted packaged foods. RECENT FINDINGS: Eleven relevant studies on monitoring (spanning food, tobacco, and cannabis packaging) were examined. Strategies regarding the precise measurement indicators, accurate data collection and management, and time trends analysis were identified; from this, a set of criteria for monitoring the power of packaging in retail settings was proposed. Examining literature on the monitoring of the "power" of packaging reveals the paucity of research in this area. This review details how packaging features can be effectively tracked in different contexts and over time.

Impact of a farmers' market nutrition coupon programme on diet quality and psychosocial well-being among low-income adults: protocol for a randomised controlled trial and a longitudinal qualitative investigation.

INTRODUCTION: Low-income populations have poorer diet quality and lower psychosocial well-being than their higher-income counterparts. These inequities increase the burden of chronic disease in low-income populations. Farmers' market subsidies may improve diet quality and psychosocial well-being among low-income populations. In Canada, the British Columbia (BC) Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Programme (FMNCP) aims to improve dietary patterns and health among low-income participants by providing coupons to purchase healthy foods from farmers' markets. This study will assess the impact of the BC FMNCP on the diet quality and psychosocial well-being of low-income adults and explore mechanisms of programme impacts. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: In a parallel group randomised controlled trial, low-income adults will be randomised to an FMNCP intervention (n=132) or a no-intervention control group (n=132). The FMNCP group will receive 16 coupon sheets valued at CAD$21/sheet over 10-15 weeks to purchase fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat/poultry/fish, eggs, nuts and herbs at farmers' markets and will be invited to participate in nutrition skill-building activities. Overall diet quality (primary outcome), diet quality subscores, mental well-being, sense of community, food insecurity and malnutrition risk (secondary outcomes) will be assessed at baseline, immediately post-intervention and 16 weeks post-intervention. Dietary intake will be assessed using the Automated Self-Administered 24-hour Dietary Recall. Diet quality will be calculated using the Healthy Eating Index-2015. Repeated measures mixed-effect regression will assess differences in outcomes between groups from baseline to 16 weeks post-intervention. Furthermore, 25-30 participants will partake in semi-structured interviews during and 5 weeks after programme completion to explore participants' experiences with and perceived outcomes from the programme. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board, Rutgers University Ethics and Compliance, and University of Waterloo Office of Research Ethics. Findings will be disseminated through policy briefs, conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03952338.

The Power of Packaging: A Scoping Review and Assessment of Child-Targeted Food Packaging.

Child-targeted food marketing is a significant public health concern, prompting calls for its regulation. Product packaging is a powerful form of food marketing aimed at children, yet no published studies examine the range of literature on the topic or the "power" of its marketing techniques. This study attempts such a task. Providing a systematic scoping review of the literature on child-targeted food packaging, we assesses the nutritional profile of these foods, the types of foods examined, and the creative strategies used to attract children. Fifty-seven full text articles were reviewed. Results identify high level trends in methodological approaches (content analysis, 38%), outcomes measured (exposure, 44%) and with respect to age. Studies examining the nutritional profile of child-targeted packaged foods use various models, classifying from anywhere from 41% to 97% of products as unhealthy. Content analyses track the prevalence of child-targeted techniques (cartoon characters as the most frequently measured), while other studies assess their effectiveness. Overall, this scoping review offers important insights into the differences between techniques tracked and those measured for effectiveness in existing literature, and identifies gaps for future research around the question of persuasive power-particularly when it comes to children's age and the specific types of techniques examined.

Which literacy for health promotion: health, food, nutrition or media?

Education and literacy are important aspects of health promotion. The potential for health literacy to promote healthier choices has been widely examined, with studies variously incorporating food literacy, nutrition literacy and/or media literacy as components of health literacy, rather than treating each as unique concepts for health promotion. This study examines similarities and differences across health literacy, food literacy, nutrition literacy and health-promoting media literacy to highlight how each literacy type theorizes the relationship between education and health. A meta-review of existing scoping and systematic reviews examining literacy conceptualizations was conducted to examine the four literacies. Representative concept definitions were extracted and key competencies (or skills) and desired consequences were identified and grouped into subcategories for analysis. This study located 378 articles, of which 17 scoping/systematic reviews were included (10 for health literacy, 3 for food, 1 for nutrition and 3 for media). Representative concept definitions of the four literacy types revealed three skill categories (information acquisition, information analysis, and the application of information) and three categories of desired consequences (knowledge, attitudes and behaviors), with each of the four literacy types emphasizing varied collections of skills and desired consequences. Despite perceived similarities in content, health, food, nutrition and media literacy conceptualize the relationship between education and health differently, emphasizing the distinct types of knowledge to promote health-related outcomes. A better understanding of the differences between these four literacies will lead to informed decision making for researchers, educators and health practitioners in intervention design and implementation.

Measuring the Power of Food Marketing to Children: a Review of Recent Literature.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This scoping review examines literature from the past 5 years (June 2014 to June 2019) across three databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, and Scopus) to detail how the persuasive power of child-targeted food marketing content is addressed and evaluated in current research, to document trends and gaps in research, and to identify opportunities for future focus. RECENT FINDINGS: Eighty relevant studies were identified, with varied approaches related to examining food marketing techniques to children (i.e., experimental, survey, meta-analyses, mixed methods, content analyses, focus groups). Few studies specifically defined power, and studies differed in terms of techniques examined. Spokes-characters were the predominant marketing technique measured; television was the platform most analyzed; and dominant messages focused on health/nutrition, taste appeals, and appeals to fun/pleasure. Mapping the current landscape when it comes to the power of food marketing to children reveals concrete details about particular platforms, methods, and strategies, as well as opportunities for future research-particularly with respect to definitions and techniques monitored, digital platforms, qualitative research, and tracking changes in targeted marketing techniques over time.

Assessing Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements Marketed to Children in Canada.

Given the growth of supplements specifically designed for children in Canada, this study examines the nutrient levels of these products, and evaluates them in light of the US Health and Medical Division (HMD)-formerly the Institute of Medicine-and Health Canada's recommendations. Content analysis was used to document the nutrient levels of child-targeted vitamins, minerals and fish oils/omega-3s (n = 80) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Products were assessed according to HMD and Health Canada dosage recommendations for children, and the percentage of Estimate Average Requirements (EAR), Adequate Intakes (AI), and Tolerable Upper Intakes Level (UL) calculated. Median EAR/AI/UL percentages and quartiles were calculated for each nutrient, and estimates for the adequate intake recommendations plotted with box plots. Sixty five percent of the products assessed were multivitamins; the median dose was higher than AI recommendations for vitamins A, B6, B12, and C, as well as thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, and biotin. Substantial variation in vitamin, mineral, or fish oil dosage was found between similar supplements-with nutrients such as vitamin B12 ranging from 83% to 5557% of AI. Such findings matter because the very existence of these products suggests that children should be taking them, yet more research is needed on their potential (adverse) effects over both the short and long term. The substantial variation in dosages between products also raises questions about the (perhaps unnecessary) fortification of our children, as well as the expectations that parents know-or are even aware of-appropriate nutrient levels for their kids.

Tracking Kids' Food: Comparing the Nutritional Value and Marketing Appeals of Child-Targeted Supermarket Products Over Time.

Marketing unhealthy foods negatively impacts children's food preferences, dietary habits and health, prompting calls for regulations that will help to create an "enabling" food environment for children. One powerful food marketing technique is product packaging, but little is known about the nature or quality of child-targeted food products over time. This study assesses how child-targeted supermarket foods in Canada have transformed with respect to nutritional profile and types of marketing appeals (that is, the power of such marketing). Products from 2009 (n = 354) and from 2017 (n = 374) were first evaluated and compared in light of two established nutritional criteria, and then compared in terms of marketing techniques on packages. Overall, child-targeted supermarket foods did not improve nutritionally over time: 88% of child-targeted products (across both datasets) would not be permitted to be marketed to children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, and sugar levels remained consistently high. Despite this poor nutritional quality, the use of nutrition claims increased significantly over time, as did the use of cartoon characters and appealing fonts to attract children's attention. Character licensing-using characters from entertainment companies-remained consistent. The findings reveal the critical need to consider packaging as part of the strategy for protecting children from unhealthy food marketing. Given the poor nutritional quality and appealing nature of child-oriented supermarket foods, food product packaging needs to be included in the WHO's call to improve the restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children.

Identifying food marketing to teenagers: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Teenagers are aggressively targeted by food marketing messages (primarily for unhealthy foods) and susceptible to this messaging due to developmental vulnerabilities and peer-group influence. Yet limited research exists on the exposure and power of food marketing specifically to teenage populations. Research studies often collapse "teenagers" under the umbrella of children or do not recognize the uniqueness of teen-targeted appeals. Child- and teen-targeted marketing strategies are not the same, and this study aims to advance understanding of teen-targeted food marketing by identifying the teen-specific promotion platforms, techniques and indicators detailed in existing literature. METHODS: A systematic scoping review collected all available literature on food marketing/advertising with the term "teenager" or "adolescent" from nine databases, as well as Google Scholar for grey literature, and a hand search of relevant institutional websites. Included were all peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and grey literature in which food marketing to youth was the central topic of the article, of any study type (i.e., original research, reviews, commentaries and reports), and including any part of the 12-17 age range. RESULTS: The 122 articles reviewed define the scope of existing literature on food marketing to young people age 17 and under, identifying leading trends in countries studied (United States, 52%), populations identified (children and teens studied concurrently, 36%), outcomes measured (advertising exposure, 54%), study type (cross-sectional, 58%) and methods used (content analysis, 46%). The promotion platforms and techniques used by food marketers to appeal to young people (as reported in the literature) are also identified and classified. Few studies (7%) use indicators to identify teen-targeted food marketing. CONCLUSIONS: Unique treatments of teen populations are limited in food marketing literature, as is the application of clear indicators to identify and differentiate teen-targeted food marketing from child- or adult-targeted content. Given the need to better measure the presence and power of teen food marketing, this is a significant oversight in existing literature. The indicators identified will help researchers to develop more accurate strategies for researching and monitoring teen-targeted food promotion.