Examining the Relationship between Youth-Targeted Food Marketing Expenditures and the Demographics of Social Media Followers

Media Literacy Practices to Prevent Obesity and Eating Disorders in Youth

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Obesity and eating disorders share common issues related to media use and effects, especially in the USA. Current research increasingly demonstrates that media literacy can address this problem. This narrative review highlights current media literacy-based research for obesity and eating disorder prevention among youth.

RECENT FINDINGS

Current research using media literacy techniques to prevent obesity indicates that these interventions improve nutrition outcomes, improve family communication about food, improve critical thinking about food advertisements, reduce sugar and fat intake, and reduce screen use for parents and youth. In addition, eating disorder research reveals that media literacy techniques lead to higher scores of body satisfaction and self-esteem, with lower scores of perfectionism, thinness, and ideal masculinity. There is a need for media literacy-based interventions to focus on family communication to prevent obesity and eating disorders. Furthermore, there should be more focus on identified levels of prevention and specific clinical outcomes.

A Scoping Review of Observational Studies on Food and Beverage Advertising on Social Media: A Public Health Perspective

Popular social media platforms have been actively used by ultra-processed food companies to promote their products. Being exposed to this type of advertising increases the consumption of unhealthy foods and the risk of developing obesity and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Thus, monitoring commercial content on social media is a core public health practice. We aimed to characterize the methods used for monitoring food advertising on social media and summarize the investigated advertising strategies via a scoping review of observational studies. This study is reported according to the MOOSE Statement, and its protocol was registered with the PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (registration nº. CRD42020187740). Out of the 6093 citations retrieved, 26 met our eligibility criteria. The studies were published from 2014 to 2021, mostly after 2018. They focused on Australia, Facebook, strategies aimed at children and adolescents, and advertising practices of ultra-processed food companies. We grouped strategies in eight classes: post features (n = 18); connectivity and engagement (n = 18); economic advantages, gifts, or competitions (n = 14); claims (n = 14); promotional characters (n = 12); brand in evidence (n = 8); corporate social responsibility or philanthropy (n = 7); and COVID-19 (n = 3). We found similarities in the investigation of strategies regardless of the type of social media. Our findings can contribute to the designing of tools for monitoring studies and regulatory mechanisms to restrict the exposure of food advertising.

Modern pied pipers: Child social media influencers and junk food on YouTube: A study from Germany

Kid influencers (under the age of 13) have profiles on social media platforms and create content to generate views and engagements. To reach young consumers, food companies are increasingly using kid influencers, perceived as highly trustworthy among children of the same age, to promote their (high-calorie) food products. Exposure to such content can lead to an increase in calorie intake. Therefore, this study aimed to identify which foods and beverages are featured in the videos of the four kid influencer channels most popular in Germany and, if possible, which Nutri-Score category these products receive. Of each channel, 50 of the most popular and 50 of the newest videos were analyzed regarding the food and beverage products and brands appearing in the video and the thumbnail. To analyze the number of appearances, each product was categorized as to whether it was branded or unbranded. Where possible, the Nutri-Score was then calculated for each product that appeared. Within the total video sample (N = 373), food and/or beverages appeared in almost 70% of the videos, of which 220 were branded and 178 were unbranded products. Due to incomplete nutrition labels of branded products, only 146 branded products could be analyzed, from which 66% received the worst Nutri-Score categories D and E. The unbranded foods were evaluated using products as similar as possible, of which the majority received Nutri-Score A. The most common brands included McDonald's, Kinder, and Coca-Cola, and the most frequent product categories were chocolate, candy, soft drinks, and fruit. The high number of high-calorie products in the videos shows that kid influencers might be regarded as a risk factor when it comes to childhood obesity.

Food and beverage advertising expenditures in Canada in 2016 and 2019 across media

Background

Food and beverage advertising has been identified as a powerful determinant of dietary intake and weight. Available evidence suggests that the preponderance of food and beverage advertising expenditures are devoted to the promotion of unhealthy products. The purpose of this study is to estimate food advertising expenditures in Canada in 2019 overall, by media and by food category, determine how much was spent on promoting healthier versus less healthy products and assess whether changes in these expenditures occurred between 2016 and 2019.

Methods

Estimates of net advertising expenditures for 57 selected food categories promoted on television, radio, out-of-home media, print media and popular websites, were licensed from Numerator. The nutrient content of promoted products or brands were collected, and related expenditures were then categorized as “healthy” or “unhealthy” according to a Nutrient Profile Model (NPM) proposed by Health Canada. Expenditures were described using frequencies and relative frequencies and percent changes in expenditures between 2016 and 2019 were computed.

Results

An estimated $628.6 million was spent on examined food and beverage advertising in Canada in 2019, with television accounting for 67.7%, followed by digital media (11.8%). In 2019, most spending (55.7%) was devoted to restaurants, followed by dairy and alternatives (11%), and $492.9 million (87.2% of classified spending) was spent advertising products and brands classified as “unhealthy”. Fruit and vegetables and water accounted for only 2.1 and 0.8% of expenditures, respectively, in 2019. In 2019 compared to 2016, advertising expenditures decreased by 14.1% across all media (excluding digital media), with the largest decreases noted for print media (− 63.0%) and television (− 14.6%). Overall, expenditures increased the most in relative terms for fruit and vegetables (+ 19.5%) and miscellaneous products (+ 5%), while decreasing the most for water (− 55.6%) and beverages (− 47.5%).

Conclusions

Despite a slight drop in national food and beverage advertising spending between 2016 and 2019, examined expenditures remain high, and most products or brands being advertised are unhealthy. Expenditures across all media should continue to be monitored to assess Canada’s nutrition environment and track changes in food advertising over time.

Advertising of foods and beverages in social media aimed at children: high exposure and low control

Background

This work is aimed to describe the recent scientific literature developed in the food/beverage sector and social networks aimed at children and adolescents, as well as current regulations.

Methods

A rapid review of the studies on advertising and social media aimed at children, published from 2010 tp 2020 is carried out, following the established inclusion criteria. In addition, the regulations in the countries in which the studies were carried out were also reviewed.

Results

Of the 573 articles, 7 met these criteria. The great attraction of unhealthy foods for children is observed, who remembered and recognized a greater number of unhealthy food brands and, by extension, the ability to influence of communication in social networks. Each country has its own self-regulation, two (Ireland and USA) have legislation on children’s food advertising, and Australia has legislation that applies only to open television. However, none of the analyzed countries have specific regulations on food, children and media advertising.

Conclusions

Given the fact that there is evidence about the great attraction that social networks suppose for the child, that they are a stimulus for the consumption of food and that many of these foods are harmful to their health; we should work in two directions: 1) Promote public policies based on promoting healthy habits among minors; and 2) Monitor and implement regulations in commercial communication social media.

Adolescents' media usage and self-reported exposure to advertising across six countries: implications for less healthy food and beverage marketing

OBJECTIVES

The study objectives were to examine: (1) adolescents' media viewing habits, (2) associations with media viewing and self-reported exposure to unhealthy food and beverage advertising and (3) differences in trends among younger and older adolescents in six high and upper middle-income countries.

DESIGN

Repeat cross-sectional online survey.

SETTING

Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA).

PARTICIPANTS

Respondents to the International Food Policy Study who provided information on all variables of interest in November-December 2019 aged 10-17 years (n=9171).

OUTCOME MEASURES

Self-reported exposure to screen-based media (screen time by media channel), use of social media platforms and self-reported location and frequency of exposure to unhealthy food and beverage advertising.

RESULTS

The average amount of time spent in front of various screens ranged from 7.6 hours to 10.2 hours across countries per week day, which may include possible viewing of multiple media channels simultaneously. Overall, Instagram was the most popular social media platform (52%-68% by country), followed by Facebook (42%-79%) and Snapchat (28%-52%). The percentage of respondents who self-reported having seen unhealthy food advertisements in the past 30 days was highest on television (43%-69%), followed by digital media (27%-60%) and gaming applications (10%-17%). Self-reported daily exposure to advertising varied between countries for sugary drinks (10%-43%) and fast food (19%-44%) and was positively associated with self-reported screen time. Self-reported exposure to screen-based media and social media platforms differed by sociodemographic characteristics and was higher among older adolescents than younger adolescents.

CONCLUSIONS

The important amount of time spent on screen-based media reported by adolescents and large percentage of adolescents reporting social media usage, coupled with high rates of self-reported advertising exposure, support the need for policies to restrict marketing of unhealthy food and beverages appealing to adolescents on screen-based media.

Exposure to Food Marketing via Social Media and Obesity among University Students in Saudi Arabia

This study investigated the associations between obesity and unhealthy food/drink intake with both the frequency of social media platform usage and food/drink marketing exposure on social media. Data were obtained from 316 university students aged 18−29 years at two universities in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. These participants completed online questionnaires with sections on demographics, anthropometric measurements, social media platform usage, food marketing exposure via social media, and unhealthy food consumption. All of the participants, 20.3% and 13.6% were overweight and obese, respectively. Snapchat was the most popular application (85.8%), followed by Instagram (75%), YouTube (61%), Twitter (51%), and TikTok (50%). The obese participants were more likely to purchase foods/drinks after watching relevant social media advertisements than their non-obese counterparts (p < 0.04). Moreover, those who purchased foods/drinks more frequently after watching such advertisements consumed higher amounts of potato chips (p < 0.01) and fast foods (p < 0.03). Finally, those who used Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram tended to have higher consumption rates for potato chips (p < 0.02), fast foods (p < 0.01), sweets (p < 0.02), and sugary drinks (p < 0.04). Public health policymakers in Saudi Arabia should consider regulating unhealthy food and drink advertisements on social media platforms, especially those targeted at younger generations.

Methods to Establish Race or Ethnicity of Twitter Users: Scoping Review

Background

A growing amount of health research uses social media data. Those critical of social media research often cite that it may be unrepresentative of the population; however, the suitability of social media data in digital epidemiology is more nuanced. Identifying the demographics of social media users can help establish representativeness.

Objective

This study aims to identify the different approaches or combination of approaches to extract race or ethnicity from social media and report on the challenges of using these methods.

Methods

We present a scoping review to identify methods used to extract the race or ethnicity of Twitter users from Twitter data sets. We searched 17 electronic databases from the date of inception to May 15, 2021, and carried out reference checking and hand searching to identify relevant studies. Sifting of each record was performed independently by at least two researchers, with any disagreement discussed. Studies were required to extract the race or ethnicity of Twitter users using either manual or computational methods or a combination of both.

Results

Of the 1249 records sifted, we identified 67 (5.36%) that met our inclusion criteria. Most studies (51/67, 76%) have focused on US-based users and English language tweets (52/67, 78%). A range of data was used, including Twitter profile metadata, such as names, pictures, information from bios (including self-declarations), or location or content of the tweets. A range of methodologies was used, including manual inference, linkage to census data, commercial software, language or dialect recognition, or machine learning or natural language processing. However, not all studies have evaluated these methods. Those that evaluated these methods found accuracy to vary from 45% to 93% with significantly lower accuracy in identifying categories of people of color. The inference of race or ethnicity raises important ethical questions, which can be exacerbated by the data and methods used. The comparative accuracies of the different methods are also largely unknown.

Conclusions

There is no standard accepted approach or current guidelines for extracting or inferring the race or ethnicity of Twitter users. Social media researchers must carefully interpret race or ethnicity and not overpromise what can be achieved, as even manual screening is a subjective, imperfect method. Future research should establish the accuracy of methods to inform evidence-based best practice guidelines for social media researchers and be guided by concerns of equity and social justice.

Can Social Media Profiles Be a Reliable Source of Information on Nutrition and Dietetics?

Background: Social media are growing worldwide platforms for unlimited exchange of various content. Owing to their accessibility and short form, they can be utilized as usable, wide-range communication and information tools for companies, scientific communities, patient advocacy organizations, and special interest groups. This study aimed to investigate whether Instagram^® profiles can be reliable sources of information and knowledge about nutrition and dietetics. Materials and Methods: Random identification of nutrition-related posts was performed using a built-in website search engine. Posts were searched by five popular hashtags: #nutrition, #nutritionist, #instadiet, #diet, and #dietitian, 250 newest posts of each. Advertisement posts were discarded. Each eligible post was then categorized (dietetics, fitness, motivation, other) and assessed with regard to the quality of nutrition information provided (five levels from none to good quality), popularity (number of followers, likes, and comments), and engagement measures (like, comment, and engagement ratio). Results: A total of 1189 posts were reviewed. The overall quality of the content regarding nutritional knowledge was extremely low (93.9% of all posts), also when divided into categories. Among all posts, 63.8% were categorized as “nutrition and dietetics”, while “fitness”, “motivation”, and “other” categories comprised 8.2%, 4.8%, and 23.2% of the posts, respectively. Posts recognized as dietetics were the most liked (mean n = 116 likes per post) and of the highest quality. However, those motivational raised the greatest degree of engagement (32.7%). Posts with cooking recipes were the most commented. Conclusions: Random post search cannot provide viewers with valuable nutrition information. A dedicated search for high-quality professional profiles is preferred to obtain quality information.

Associations between State-Level Obesity Rates, Engagement with Food Brands on Social Media, and Hashtag Usage

Food advertisement exposure is associated with increased caloric intake, but little is known about food/beverage placements in the digital media environment. We aimed to examine the correlation between the number of people who follow food and beverage brand social media accounts (i.e., user engagement) and state-level obesity rates; quantify social media followers' use of "healthy" vs. "unhealthy" hashtags; and analyze the relationship between user engagement and hashtag usage. We identified the 26 fast-food and beverage brands with the highest advertising expenditures and used Demographics Pro to determine the characteristics of social media users amongst the 26 brands. A series of regression analyses were conducted that related the mean percentage of brand followers and state-level obesity rates. We then identified 733 hashtags on Instagram and 703 hashtags on Twitter, coding them as "healthy", "unhealthy", "neutral", or "unrelated to health". Intercoder reliability was established using ReCal2, which indicated a 90% agreement between coders. Finally, we conducted ANCOVA to examine the relationship between the mean percentage of brand followers and their hashtag usage. There was a significant, positive correlation between the state-level obesity rate and the mean percentage of followers of sugary drink or fast-food brands on Instagram and Twitter, but such a correlation between obesity and low-calorie drink brand followers was only found on Twitter. Our findings illustrate the relationship between the social media food environment and obesity rates in the United States. Given the high rates of engagement with food brands on social media, policies should limit digital advertisements featuring fast-food, sugary drink, and low-calorie drink brands.

How Food Marketing on Instagram Shapes Adolescents' Food Preferences: Online Randomized Trial

Background

Worldwide obesity rates have prompted 16 countries to enact policies to reduce children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing, but few policies address online advertising practices or protect adolescents from being targeted. Given adolescents spend so much time online, it is critical to understand how persuasive Instagram food advertisements (ads) are compared with traditional food ads. To strengthen online food marketing policies, more evidence is needed on whether social media ads are more persuasive than other types of ads in shaping adolescents’ preferences.

Objective

This study examined whether adolescents could identify food companies’ Instagram posts as ads, and the extent to which Instagram versus traditional food ads shape adolescents’ preferences.

Methods

In Part 1, participants aged 13-17 years (N=832) viewed 8 pairs of ads and were asked to identify which ads originated from Instagram. One ad in each pair was selected from traditional sources (eg, print; online banner ad), and the other ad was selected from Instagram, but we removed the Instagram frame—which includes the logo, comments, and “likes.” In Part 2, participants were randomized to rate food ads that ostensibly originated from (1) Instagram (ie, we photoshopped the Instagram frame onto ads); or (2) traditional sources. Unbeknownst to participants, half of the ads in their condition originated from Instagram and half originated from traditional sources.

Results

In Part 1, adolescents performed worse than chance when asked to identify Instagram ads (P<.001). In Part 2, there were no differences on 4 of 5 outcomes in the “labeled ad condition.” In the “unlabeled ad condition,” however, they preferred Instagram ads to traditional ads on 3 of 5 outcomes (ie, trendiness, P=.001; artistic appeal, P=.001; likeability, P=.001).

Conclusions

Adolescents incorrectly identified traditional ads as Instagram posts, suggesting the artistic appearance of social media ads may not be perceived as marketing. Further, the mere presence of Instagram features caused adolescents to rate food ads more positively than ads without Instagram features.

#SupportLocal: how online food delivery services leveraged the COVID-19 pandemic to promote food and beverages on Instagram

Objective:

To explore the promotion of discretionary foods/beverages and marketing strategies employed by the top three online food delivery services’ (OFDS) Instagram accounts in three countries before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Design:

Publicly available data were extracted for the top three OFDS Instagram accounts for Australia, United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) from March to May 2019 and 2020. Food/beverage items from posts were classified as ‘discretionary’ or from the five food groups (FFG) according to the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Marketing strategies were coded using an existing framework. Posts referring to COVID-19 were coded under four marketing strategies: (i) appropriating frontline workers; (ii) combatting the pandemic; (iii) selling social distancing; and (iv) accelerating digitalisation.

Results:

From 581 posts, 618 food/beverage items were shown, of which 69 % (427/618) were classified as discretionary. In 2019, the most used marketing strategies were product imagery (unbranded) (137/195, 70 %), links (111/195, 57 %) and sponsorships/partnerships (58/195, 30 %). In 2020, the most used were links (252/386, 68 %), product imagery (unbranded) (179/386, 49 %) and branding elements (175/386, 45 %). The most common COVID-19 marketing strategy was combatting the pandemic (76/123, 62 %) followed by selling social distancing (53/123, 43 %), appropriating frontline workers (34/123, 28 %) and accelerating digitalisation (32/123, 26 %).

Conclusions:

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, OFDS adapted their marketing, creating content with the theme of ‘combatting the pandemic’. Due to the growing number of discretionary foods/beverages promoted on Instagram, this highlights the need for policy action to counter the potential influence social media platforms have on dietary behaviours.

Context, Development, and Digital Media: Implications for Very Young Adolescents in LMICs

The rapidly expanding universe of information, media, and learning experiences available through digital technology is creating unique opportunities and vulnerabilities for children and adolescents. These issues are particularly salient during the developmental window at the transition from childhood into adolescence. This period of early adolescence is a time of formative social and emotional learning experiences that can shape identity development in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Increasingly, many of these foundational learning experiences are occurring in on-line digital environments. These expanding vulnerabilities and opportunities are being further amplified for young adolescents growing up in low resourced settings around the world. Cultural and contextual factors influence access, use, and appropriation of digital technology. Further, neurobehavioral changes associated with the onset of puberty often coincide with entry into social media and more autonomous use of technology. In low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), disparities in access, use, and appropriation of digital media can amplify prevailing economic gaps, and compound gender inequalities during early adolescence. In LMICs, adolescents are often the early adopters of mobile technology and social media platforms. While the impact of social media on the well-being, particularly mental health, of young adolescents has been a focus of research in high-income countries (HICs), much less is known about the impacts of social media use on young adolescents in LMICs. In this paper, we review what is known about the interaction between digital media and early adolescent development. We highlight crucial gaps in the evidence in LMICs; and describe some hypotheses and areas for future research to address these compelling issues.

Brands with personalities - good for businesses, but bad for public health? A content analysis of how food and beverage brands personify themselves on Twitter

Objective:

To examine the extent to which food and beverage brands exhibit personalities on Twitter, quantify Twitter users’ engagement with posts displaying personality features and determine advertising spending across these brands on Twitter.

Design:

We identified 100 tweets from 10 food and beverage brands that displayed a ‘personality’, and 100 ‘control’ tweets (i.e. a post by that brand on the same day). Our codebook quantified the following personification strategies: (1) humour; (2) trendy language and (3) absence of food product mentions. We used media articles to quantify other personification strategies: (4) referencing trending topics; (5) referencing current events; (6) referencing internet memes and (7) targeting niche audiences. We calculated brands’ number of tweets, re-tweets, ‘likes’, and comments and report the relationship between advertising spending and retweets per follower.

Setting:

Twitter posts.

Participants:

Ten food and beverage brands that were described in media articles (e.g. Forbes) as having distinct personalities.

Results:

Personality tweets earned 123 013 retweets, 732 076 ‘likes’ and 14 806 comments, whereas control tweets earned 61 044 retweets, 256 105 ‘likes’ and 14 572 comments. The strategies used most included humour (n 81), trendy language (n 80) and trending topics (n 47). The three brands that spent the most on advertising had similar or fewer retweets per follower than the four that spent relatively little on advertising.

Conclusions:

Some food and beverage brands have distinct ‘personalities’ on Twitter that generate millions of ‘likes’ and retweets. Some retweets have an inverse relationship with advertising spending, suggesting ‘personalities’ may be a uniquely powerful advertising tool for targeting young adults.

Social media and unhealthy food nexus: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

This study assesses consumers' preference for food from social media on a sample of 510 respondents from the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia using the Best-Worst Scaling method. The findings of the study conclude that unhealthy and nutrient-poor food items are more preferred than healthy and nutrient-rich food items. The study recommends that the food and drug authority should intervene to increase consumers' awareness about the effect of unhealthy food items by creating social media accounts to warn consumers about the health outcomes of consuming certain unhealthy foods marketed through social media platforms.

Understanding the Extent of Adolescents' Willingness to Engage With Food and Beverage Companies' Instagram Accounts: Experimental Survey Study

Background

Social media platforms have created a new advertising frontier, yet little is known about the extent to which this interactive form of advertising shapes adolescents’ online relationships with unhealthy food brands.

Objective

We aimed to understand the extent to which adolescents’ preferences for Instagram food ads are shaped by the presence of comments and varying numbers of “likes.” We hypothesized that adolescents would show the highest preferences for ads with more “likes” and comments. We predicted that these differences would be greater among adolescents who were “heavy social media users” (ie, >3 hours daily) vs “light social media users” (ie, <3 hours daily).

Methods

We recruited Black and non-Latinx White adolescents (aged 13-17 years; N=832) from Dynata, a firm that maintains online participant panels. Participants completed an online survey in which they were randomized to view and rate Instagram food ads that either did or did not show comments. Within each condition, adolescents were randomized to view 4 images that had high (>10,000), medium (1000-10,000), or low (<100) numbers of “likes.” Adolescents reported ad preferences and willingness to engage with the brand.

Results

Adolescents rated ads with medium or high numbers of “likes” higher than ads with few “likes” (P=.001 and P=.002, respectively). Heavy social media users (>3 hours/day) were 6.366 times more willing to comment on ads compared to light users (P<.001).

Conclusions

Adolescents interact with brands in ways that mimic interactions with friends on social media, which is concerning when brands promote unhealthy products. Adolescents also preferred ads with many “likes,” demonstrating the power of social norms in shaping behavior. As proposed in 2019, the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act should expand online advertising restrictions to include adolescents aged 12 to 16 years.

Online Food Shopping: A Conceptual Analysis for Research Propositions

Shopping foods online is different from shopping other things online. To stimulate more thinking and enrich potential future research imagination, this paper reviews for online food shopping features, offers a commentary, and proposes future research directions. The propositions include the following: (1) The design and implementation of online food shopping (eco)systems should engage the consumers and other stakeholders to co-create collective and social values; (2) A better fit between technologies’ and food businesses’ natures could generate better applications for online food shopping; (3) A business model with sound finance systems becomes the core of a healthy online food ecosystem; (4) The interaction and transformation between online (virtual) and offline (virtual) food businesses determines the dynamic development of future food shopping.

See, Like, Share, Remember: Adolescents' Responses to Unhealthy-, Healthy- and Non-Food Advertising in Social Media

Media-saturated digital environments seek to influence social media users’ behaviour, including through marketing. The World Health Organization has identified food marketing, including advertising for unhealthy items, as detrimental to health, and in many countries, regulation restricts such marketing and advertising to younger children. Yet regulation rarely addresses adolescents and few studies have examined their responses to social media advertising. In two studies, we examined adolescents’ attention, memory and social responses to advertising posts, including interactions between product types and source of posts. We hypothesized adolescents would respond more positively to unhealthy food advertising compared to healthy food or non-food advertising, and more positively to ads shared by peers or celebrities than to ads shared by a brand. Outcomes measured were (1a) social responses (likelihood to ‘share’, attitude to peer); (1b) brand memory (recall, recognition) and (2) attention (eye-tracking fixation duration and count). Participants were 151 adolescent social media users (Study 1: n = 72; 13–14 years; M = 13.56 years, SD = 0.5; Study 2: n = 79, 13–17 years, M = 15.37 years, SD = 1.351). They viewed 36 fictitious Facebook profile feeds created to show age-typical content. In a 3 × 3 factorial design, each contained an advertising post that varied by content (healthy/unhealthy/non-food) and source (peer/celebrity/company). Generalised linear mixed models showed that advertisements for unhealthy food evoked significantly more positive responses, compared to non-food and healthy food, on 5 of 6 measures: adolescents were more likely to wish to ‘share’ unhealthy posts; rated peers more positively when they had unhealthy posts in their feeds; recalled and recognised a greater number of unhealthy food brands; and viewed unhealthy advertising posts for longer. Interactions with sources (peers, celebrities and companies) were more complex but also favoured unhealthy food advertising. Implications are that regulation of unhealthy food advertising should address adolescents and digital media.