Does Susceptibility to Food Marketing Change with Age? A Review of Unhealthy Food Consumption from Childhood to Adulthood
Authors: Alexandra Mazeika & Aiden Mazzarolo
Mentor: Dr. Gerard Dericks (PhD, London School of Economics). Dr. Dericks is currently director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education at Hawaii Pacific University.
Abstract
Food and drink marketing often encourages the consumption of Energy Dense, Nutrient Poor foods (EDNP). This literature review discusses the relationships between unhealthy food marketing and consumption in children, adolescents, and adults. The research reviewed includes ecological, observational, longitudinal and experimental study designs which looked at television, online, advergame and social media influencer marketing. Results show children have relatively consistent relationships between the amount of advertising they view and unhealthy eating behaviors. Experimental studies showed they consumed more foods following exposure to EDNP marketing. Adolescents also had relationships between the amount of advertising they view and their consumption, with online and social media being common sources of marketing. Results were varied however when looking at different ages within adolescents. Adults had less consistent results due to individual differences and psychological factors. Overall there seems to be some relevance of marketing to all ages, however the relationships may differ depending on age, the type of media and individual factors. Longitudinal and experimental research is needed to help understand how differing ages may be affected by marketing.
Introduction
The consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods is a key health concern due to the potential for adverse health consequences, including obesity. Children are particularly susceptible to the effects of EDNP food consumption, and their dietary patterns, once established, frequently continue into adulthood. The foods and beverages most heavily marketed to young people are EDNP items, including fast food, sweets, salty snacks, sweetened drinks, and other highly palatable items. Additionally, children are extensively exposed to marketing through traditional channels such as television, as well as emerging platforms such as social media. Kelly et al. (2011) report that unhealthy food marketing on television was disproportionately high during children’s peak viewing times, indicating that children were being targeted with unhealthy food marketing when they watched TV.
A growing number of children are accessing social media, where food marketing is becoming more prevalent. Potvin Kent et al. (2019) note that 72 percent of respondents aged 7-16 years had been exposed to food marketing via their preferred social media application. Of these exposures, 44 percent involved fast food, whereas 9 percent involved sugar-sweetened beverages. The researchers estimate that children were exposed to food marketing via social media applications some 30 times per week on average, whereas teenagers were exposed to significantly higher numbers of such advertisements. Overall, the researchers identify a concerning volume of children’s exposure to food marketing through multiple channels and note the disproportionate presence of EDNP foods in such marketing. The central question, therefore, concerns whether such exposure influences children’s dietary consumption patterns.
As this review article notes, a number of studies have investigated the effect of food marketing on children’s food preferences, requests, immediate caloric consumption, dietary habits, and obesity. However, the body of evidence is inconsistent, reporting both strong and weak associations between food marketing exposure and consumption patterns depending on the platform and measurement. Individual factors, including the child’s total media exposure, socioeconomic status, weight status, and attention to advertising, as well as differences between the types of food marketed, have all been reported as significant variables. In addition, several studies have controlled these factors, resulting in mixed conclusions. Moreover, while most studies utilized observational designs, experimental manipulations also report significant effects. However, most of the papers reviewed study a single country and focus on a particular age group of children. As such, the current review aims to analyze the effect of food marketing on the dietary intake of EDNP foods internationally and according to age, analyzing the literature across television advertising, digital advertising, advergames, and influencer marketing.
Literature Review
Children
Children have been the subject of extensive research on food marketing, most of which has focused on traditional media such as television. The general consensus among the reviewed articles is that exposure to food marketing has a significant impact on children’s food preferences and consumption patterns. However, the evidence varies according to the type of media, the metric utilized to assess dietary patterns, as well as individual characteristics such as weight status and socioeconomic variables.
Television Advertising
The first set of studies reviewed originate from various authors examining the relationship between exposure to television advertising and children’s dietary consumption patterns. Overall, the evidence suggests that children’s exposure to advertising influences their diet, with several studies finding that increased exposure to EDNP food advertising is associated with elevated levels of unhealthy food consumption. Lobstein and Dibb (2005) analyze the relationship between the incidence of childhood overweight and the volume of food advertising on television, identifying a positive association between the two at a population level. Specifically, the authors find that a higher number of television advertisements for energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods correlate with increased childhood overweight, whereas food advertising featuring healthier options has the reverse effect. While the study examines an ecological association and cannot establish a direct causal link, the findings suggest that the presence of unhealthy food advertising may be a risk factor for childhood overweight.
Other studies provide evidence at an individual level, demonstrating that children’s food consumption patterns are influenced by their viewing habits. Buijzen et al. (2008) find that children’s exposure to food advertising is positively associated with their intake of the advertised food products. Specifically, their analysis of 234 Dutch households with a child between ages 4-12 years revealed that food advertising exposure predicted the consumption of specific food items, as well as general patterns of energy-dense food consumption. The study’s results indicated that greater exposure to food advertising resulted in children eating advertised food items and increased overall consumption of energy-dense food products, including sweet breakfast cereals, confectionery, salty snacks, soft drinks, and fast food. While the researchers did not find a significant relationship between food advertising exposure and overall food consumption, they identified significant associations between advertising exposure and children’s consumption of sweetened snacks and beverages. Moreover, the authors identify significant associations between advertising exposure and individual children’s characteristics, specifically the child’s weight and the family’s income, demonstrating that exposure effects are dependent on socioeconomic factors.
Several studies manipulate the exposure of children to food advertising and measure the effect on their consumption or preferences experimentally. The first such study analyzed preschool children (ages 2-6 years) and demonstrated that those exposed to food commercials while watching a commercial break-inserted cartoon were more likely to express a preference for the advertised food items than those not exposed to such advertising (Borzekowski & Robinson, 2001). In another study, Halford et al. (2007) demonstrated that children ages 5-7 years who viewed food and non-food advertisements consumed more food items in a post-viewing snack session compared to a control group. By manipulating both the content and the context of advertising, the authors demonstrated that food advertising encouraged greater consumption of advertised items, whereas non-food advertising failed to affect the consumption of non-advertised items.
Studies analyzing older children provide further evidence on the association between food advertising and the development of unhealthy dietary patterns. In a study conducted among children ages 9-11 years, Halford et al. (2004) demonstrate that exposure to food advertising increases children’s snack intake. Specifically, children exposed to food advertising consumed significantly more snacks from all categories than those exposed to non-food advertising. Children who were overweight or obese demonstrated greater recognition of food advertising, and for these children, food-advertisement recognition predicted subsequent snack consumption. Overall, the study adds to the growing body of evidence demonstrating that food advertising increases children’s consumption of advertised products, with individual factors such as the child’s weight affecting the degree of this association.
Andreyeva et al. (2011) analyze the relationship between national-level food advertising and children’s consumption of unhealthy foods. Using Nielsen data and national statistics, the authors examine how much children’s exposure to advertisements predicted their likelihood to consume the advertised items. The study finds that every 1 percent increase in children’s exposure to soft-drink and fast-food advertising corresponded to a 0.04 percent increase in likelihood to consume the advertised products, with significantly stronger associations for soft drinks than for fast food. In a separate analysis, fast-food advertising was associated with increased BMI among children who were already above the 85th percentile of normal weight, despite no observed association across all children.
Further evidence is provided by Olafsdottir et al. (2014), who provide both cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence on the effects of children’s viewing of commercial television. Their study of 1,733 children ages 2-9 years found that every additional hour of daily viewing was associated with a 50 percent greater likelihood for children to consume sweetened beverages at least 1-3 times a week, with 60 percent greater likelihood for those exposed to commercial television. Children whose parents did not restrict commercial viewing were 90 percent more likely to consume sweetened beverages than those whose parents did. In the longitudinal portion of the study, the authors find that exposure to commercial viewing predicted greater sweetened-beverage consumption likelihood even two years after follow-up. Combined, the findings from the study demonstrate that increased commercial viewing exposure influences children’s likelihood to consume sweetened beverages, which is consistent with other studies analyzing food advertising and unhealthy eating.
However, not all studies find an independent effect of advertising on children’s dietary patterns. Lee et al. (2014) examine the association between children’s exposure to EDNP food advertising and their consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods, as well as their overweight status. Children’s exposure to EDNP food advertising was associated with increased consumption of unhealthy food categories and reduced consumption of healthy food categories. In addition, children in the highest quartile for EDNP food advertising exposure had greater odds of being overweight or obese. Yet, when controlling for overall hours of television viewing, these associations were no longer statistically significant, suggesting that viewing time may have been the confounding variable influencing both advertising exposure and dietary patterns. Thus, it appears that for some metrics of food consumption, changes in children’s intake cannot be attributed to food advertising exposure independently of overall viewing time.
Overall, the reviewed studies demonstrate that exposure to television food advertising can influence children’s dietary patterns, primarily by encouraging consumption of the advertised products. Experimental studies provide evidence on the causal mechanism, whereas observational studies demonstrate associations with various metrics of food consumption. However, the magnitude of these associations varies across different studies, and some advertising effects were not significant when controlling for overall viewing time. Additionally, children’s weight status and socioeconomic characteristics influence the degree to which they are affected by food advertising.
Digital Advertising
The rise of digital media has created new platforms for food marketing, and children’s exposure to such marketing has increased significantly in recent years. Several studies reviewed provide evidence on this topic, demonstrating that digital food marketing can influence children’s consumption of unhealthy foods. In specific cases, children’s interaction with digital advertisements predicts greater consumption of unhealthy products. Thus, while exposure to digital food marketing affects children in similar ways to traditional media, such marketing can be more engaging due to the interactive nature of online platforms.
Norman et al. (2018) investigate the effects of exposure to food advertising in both traditional and digital formats, analyzing how such exposure affects children’s food consumption in a laboratory setting. Their study of 125 Australian children ages 7-12 years demonstrates that combined exposure to television and an advergame (a marketing tool combining advertisements with a video game) increases children’s subsequent snack intake. Specifically, children exposed to unhealthy food marketing through both media consumed 201 additional kilojoules (kJ) during a laboratory snack session compared to those exposed to non-food marketing. As a result of the advergame, children’s overall intake of snacks and lunch was 194 kJ higher, and the advergame increased the impact of such marketing by 182 kJ compared to viewing television advertisements.
A similar effect is demonstrated by Folkvord et al. (2015) in their analysis of the effects of an advergame promoting energy-dense foods on children’s subsequent food consumption. Their study of 108 Dutch primary-school children demonstrated that exposure to a food advergame increased children’s consumption of healthy and unhealthy snacks compared to a non-food advergame. Specifically, children who played the food advergame ate 178.0 kcal on average compared to 132.9 kcal for the control group, with attention to advertising predicting consumption levels. As such, the study demonstrates that children engage with digital advertisements, and attention to such marketing predicts their food consumption.
Baldwin et al. (2018) investigate the association between social media and children’s healthy and unhealthy food consumption, emphasizing the importance of engagement with food marketing. Their study of 417 children ages 10-16 years finds that viewing food brand YouTube videos is associated with higher levels of children’s unhealthy food, unhealthy beverage, and overall consumption scores. Furthermore, seeing favorite brands advertised online and purchasing food online were both associated with unhealthy consumption scores. As such, children who engage with food marketing online have worse dietary patterns than those who view traditional advertisements.
Influencer marketing is an emerging topic in food marketing research, and several studies reviewed provide evidence on its effects. In a randomized trial among 176 children ages 9-11 years (Coates et al., 2019a), children view social-media posts created by influencers discussing either unhealthy, healthy, and non-food products, with researchers assessing the effect on children’s subsequent food consumption. Children exposed to unhealthy-snack influencer marketing ate 448.3 kcal, compared to 357.1 kcal for those exposed to non-food marketing, whereas unhealthy-snack consumption comprised 388.8 kcal and 292.2 kcal for the respective groups. Influencer marketing for healthy snacks had little effect on participants’ total consumption and unhealthy-snack consumption. Overall, the study finds that influencer marketing for EDNP foods increases children’s overall caloric intake.
Coates et al. (2019b) examine the effects of influencer marketing on children’s consumption of unhealthy snacks. Their study of 151 children ages 9-11 years finds that influencer marketing promotes children’s consumption of the promoted unhealthy snack compared to an alternative unhealthy snack, with an advertising disclosure having little effect on this association. In essence, the study demonstrates that children are persuaded to consume more of the promoted snack if it is recommended by an influencer, regardless of whether the influencer explicitly disclosed the promotion. Thus, while influencer marketing can affect consumption, such effects are observed across various formats, including those designed to make children aware of the marketing’s intent.
Most studies reviewed provide evidence within a short time frame, generally analyzing how exposure to advertisements affects children’s consumption in laboratory settings or within a single period. Longitudinal data are scarce, but Smit et al. (2020) provide evidence on the effects of viewing social-media influencer vlogs on children’s healthy and unhealthy beverage consumption. Their sample of 8- to 12-year-olds was measured three times within a two-year period, demonstrating that frequent viewing predicted unhealthy beverage consumption two years later. However, viewing was not associated with subsequent unhealthy snack consumption and only weakly predicted unhealthy beverage consumption within a one-year period. Thus, while the exposure to social media predicted unhealthy beverage consumption, the association was not consistent across different measures or snack consumption.
Overall, the reviewed studies demonstrate that digital food marketing can influence children’s consumption of unhealthy foods. Such marketing can take many forms, from advergames to influencer recommendations, and children’s engagement with these platforms predicts their altered consumption of unhealthy foods. While some associations have been identified within experimental settings, evidence on long-term changes in consumption is limited. Nevertheless, overall, the body of research provides sufficient evidence that both television and digital food marketing can affect children’s dietary patterns with time. However, the effects of such exposure generally depend on specific factors, including the child’s weight and engagement with the advertisements, as well as the specific food category analyzed.
Adolescents
Research suggests that food marketing affects children and continues to do so into adolescence. While adolescents are more mature and can spot marketing strategies more easily, they remain vulnerable to the effects of marketing. Many studies have found relationships between exposure to food marketing and the consumption of energy-dense, nutrition-poor (EDNP) foods. These marketing effects have been observed across many different types of media, such as television and social media.
Television Advertising
Delfino et al. (2020) found that many adolescents reported wanting to buy advertised foods after seeing food advertisements, especially those for sweets and fast foods. Adolescents who bought advertised foods also reported greater consumption of fried foods, sweets, and snacks. Dikmen et al. (2021) similarly found that many adolescents reported being influenced by television food advertisements and were more likely to purchase advertised food. Food choices after exposure to advertising leaned toward less healthy options, such as sweets, snacks, and sugary beverages. An important age-related finding in Dikmen et al. was that younger adolescents aged 11–13 appeared to be more influenced by television advertisements than adolescents aged 14–16. This finding suggests that the effects of traditional advertising may become somewhat weaker as adolescents get older.
Bagnato et al. (2023) supports the hypothesis that marketing is correlated with adolescents’ food choices. The study observed youth, aged 10–17, across six countries, looking at fast-food marketing exposure, brand preferences, and fast-food consumption. Greater exposure to fast-food marketing was associated with greater preference for fast-food brands and greater fast-food intake. However, the cross-sectional study design limited the ability to establish definitively that advertising directly caused greater fast-food consumption.
Giese et al. (2015) also lends support to the assertion that television advertising is correlated with food intake among adolescents. The study included 2,851 participants, aged 8-21, from Finland, Germany, and Romania. Participants reported that they had more exposure to unhealthy food marketing than to that for healthy food. The amount of food consumed that was healthy or unhealthy was correlated with the amount of exposure to marketing for each respective food category. The study also explored adolescents' self-control, and found that adolescents with greater self-control typically ate more healthy food and less unhealthy food, but not to a large degree. These findings suggest that across multiple countries, television advertising leads to greater consumption of the advertised food, regardless of the individual's degree of self control.
Digital Advertising
The evidence examined suggests that digital and social media advertising are important alternative channels in food marketing to adolescents. Gascoyne et al. (2021) found that adolescents who saw more food marketing on social media reported greater consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. The relationship became stronger as the amount of engagement increased. Researchers concluded that adolescents over the age of 14 should still have protection from food and beverage marketing. The findings suggested that adolescents' susceptibility to advertising does not necessarily diminish with age.
In another study, Vergeer et al. (2024) found similar evidence related to digital advertising. The study included 1,075 Canadian youth, aged 10–17, and examined digital marketing for fast food, sugary drinks, salty snacks, and desserts. More frequent exposure to advertising was associated with more frequent consumption of these foods. In fact, daily exposure to advertisements for desserts and sweets was associated with more than twice the consumption of these types of foods.
Vergeer et al. also compared children aged 10-12 against adolescents aged 13-17. The researchers found that for dessert and sweet-treat consumption, age did not significantly impact consumption even after controlling for other variables such as social and economic background. These findings support the idea that susceptibility to advertising doesn’t significantly diminish with transition from childhood to adolescence.
Taken together, the adolescent studies generally suggest that greater exposure to EDNP food marketing is related to greater preference for, purchasing of, or consumption of unhealthy foods. The findings also suggest that the type of marketing may matter when considering age. Dikmen et al. found that younger adolescents were more influenced by traditional television advertising, whereas Gascoyne et al. found that older adolescents were more susceptible to social-media marketing, while Vergeer et al. did not find consistent differences between younger and older participants. Although the evidence is mixed, there is support for a trend away from television toward social media as an unhealthy food channel with advancing age in adolescence.
Adults
The findings from studies focusing on adults were more varied and less consistent than for children and adolescents. Some studies suggested that exposure to food advertising was associated with greater consumption or purchasing of EDNP food. These results were similar to those of the children’s and adolescents’ studies. However, other studies didn’t find much of a correlation between exposure to marketing and greater consumption of EDNP food, or even found reduced consumption of food. These mixed results suggest that the relationship between food advertising and consumption of EDNP food becomes more complex as people grow into adulthood.
Television Advertising
Thomson et al. (2008) examined television viewing, recognition of snack advertisements, and eating behavior among 613 university students aged 18–25. Participants who watched more television reported eating more EDNP food and snacking more while watching television. The study also linked greater food consumption to more hours of watching and to better recall of food brands. These findings suggest a correlation between food advertising and the increase in unhealthy snacking in adults. However, since the study is cross-sectional it cannot be definitively concluded that greater exposure to marketing influences food consumption.
Wonderlich-Tierney et al. (2013) researched whether food advertisements increase consumption and whether transportability (how absorbed someone becomes in media) may contribute. When college students were exposed to food or control advertisements there was seemingly no effect of food advertising on consumption. The factor that increased food consumption depended on the transportability of the individual. Individuals with higher transportability consumed more food following food-advertisement exposure, suggesting that individual characteristics may influence how strongly young adults respond to food marketing.
Kidd and Loxton (2018) also supports the idea of individual characteristics affecting adult consumption behavior, rather than just exposure to food advertising. 98 adults aged 18–53 were randomly assigned to watch a documentary containing either junk-food advertisements or neutral advertisements. Exposure to junk-food advertising alone did not significantly increase food consumption. Instead, participants with higher reward sensitivity consumed more food following junk-food advertising because the advertisements produced a stronger urge to eat, which in turn predicted greater consumption.
Another study with complicating results was van Nee et al. (2016). The participants, 121 young women with an average age of 20, did not significantly increase their food intake after being exposed to food advertisements. However, participants who watched a TV program containing food cues ate less, particularly of sweet snacks. This effect was especially noticeable in women with a high BMI. The results suggest that the food cues may have made participants more aware of their food intake, leading them to lower it. This study provides an important counter to the findings of Thomson et al. implying a monotonic relationship between food advertising and food consumption.
Digital Advertising
Research into digital food marketing also resulted in varying conclusions. Buchanan et al. (2017) exposed young adults aged 18–24 to energy drink marketing through brand websites and social media. After exposure, participants reported more positive attitudes toward the brands and greater intentions to purchase and consume energy drinks, suggesting that digital marketing can increase interest in EDNP products among young adults. However, an important limitation was that only the intention was recorded, so it’s unknown whether participants actually consumed more energy drinks.
Similarly, Nandwani et al. (2025) examined social-media use and food-related advertising among 314 young adults aged 18–25. The researchers found a correlation between exposure to certain types of food advertising, including ready-to-eat foods and food delivery advertisements, and participants' dietary and weight-related measures. These findings suggest that digital food marketing stays relevant into young adulthood. However, due to it being a cross-sectional study, it’s difficult to state definitively that the advertising influenced eating behavior.
Chiong and Figueroa (2022) suggests that other factors come into play regarding adult consumption behavior. 1,945 adult-adolescent pairs filled out a survey about trust in different food and beverage brands and to what extent that trust impacted consumption of those brands. The study focused on UPFs (ultra processed foods). The researchers found that greater trust and more positive perceptions of specific foods and brands led to higher consumption of those foods and beverages. Food security also contributed to those relationships.
Overall, the studies focusing on adults suggest a less consistent relationship between food marketing and the consumption of EDNP food than those studies focusing on younger individuals. Thomson et al. found a correlation between food marketing recognition and increased consumption of EDNP snacks, while Buchanan et al. found that digital energy-drink marketing increased intentions to purchase and consume the products, although the study was not designed to assess actual consumption. Other studies such as van Nee et al. found that food advertisements did not increase consumption and that food cues within a TV program lowered it, while Chiong and Figueroa additionally suggested that individual personality characteristics may be an important factor in susceptibility to advertising exposure.
Discussion
Overall, the reviewed literature supports the conclusion that marketing plays an important role in food preferences and consumption, though the strength and nature of this relationship appear to change with age. In children, the evidence suggests a robust relationship between exposure to unhealthy food marketing and food preferences or consumption. Among adolescents, marketing remains connected to the consumption of EDNP foods, and digital and social media marketing become increasingly important. Among adults, the evidence is more mixed, with several studies suggesting that advertising does not affect all adults equally and that susceptibility depends on individual characteristics. As food consumers become more experienced, the degree to which they are affected by food marketing appears to become more varied across individuals.
One explanation for the broad susceptibility to food marketing is evolutionary. Humans appear to have evolved a preference for energy-dense foods, which would have been advantageous when access to food was uncertain (Pinel et al., 2000). In environments where such foods are abundant, marketing can take advantage of this preference by repeatedly displaying highly attractive food cues. However, none of the reviewed studies tested an evolutionary mechanism directly, and an evolved preference would be expected to operate fairly uniformly across the lifespan, so it cannot by itself account for the age pattern observed in this review. The weakening and increasing variability of marketing effects with age point to the additional roles of learning, individual differences, socioeconomic factors, and the type of marketing encountered.
The evidence reviewed across children’s studies provides some of the clearest support for the hypothesis that marketing affects food behavior. Across the child literature, television advertising, advergames, and influencer marketing have been linked with changes in children's food preferences or consumption. The emergence of newer marketing forms represents notable strategic shift. Food marketing has been blended into entertainment channels, such as video games or influencer sponsorships, adding a layer of camouflage. Taken together, these findings suggest that children represent the age group most consistently susceptible to food-marketing effects. However, there are also indications that these effects are not identical in each child, and other factors such as weight status, previous food preferences, and media exposure may also affect children’s responses.
Findings from adolescent studies provide evidence that marketing continues to affect food choice well beyond childhood, though the relationship becomes more complex. Most studies demonstrate links between food advertising and unhealthy food preferences, purchasing, or consumption. Even with greater maturity, adolescents remain susceptible to marketing. Giese et al. (2015), for example, found that greater exposure to unhealthy food advertising was connected with greater unhealthy food intake even when the individual’s self-control was considered. This evidence suggests that understanding advertising and having self-control do not remove the influence marketing can have on adolescents. The adolescent evidence also points to a shift in marketing channel with age: younger adolescents appeared more influenced by television advertising (Dikmen et al., 2021), whereas social media marketing remained influential among older adolescents (Gascoyne et al., 2021). The shift to digital marketing may have allowed marketers to continue to exert influence on adolescents’ food choices. While adolescents may be more sophisticated consumers than younger children, marketing may offset some of this sophistication by increasing exposure and interaction via branded entertainment and social-media content.
The findings from studies focusing on adults have the greatest variability, suggesting that advertising exposure alone may be a less defining feature for predicting consumption in this age group. While some studies found a link between exposure to marketing and greater consumption of EDNP foods, others found little correlation or even a lesser amount of consumption after exposure to food cues. Other studies found that individual factors such as transportability and reward sensitivity moderated the effect of marketing on consumption (Wonderlich-Tierney et al., 2013; Kidd & Loxton, 2018). These findings suggest that individual characteristics become important for understanding advertising effects in adulthood. Responses to marketing in adulthood may therefore depend on characteristics that include reward sensitivity, engagement with media, trust in advertising, and existing attitudes toward food. Chiong and Figueroa (2022) found that more favorable views of and greater trust in food advertisements were connected with greater ultra-processed food consumption among adults, supporting the hypothesis that factors beyond simple exposure to advertisements may play a key role in an adult's food behavior.
Several limitations of the existing research constrain the ability to establish solid conclusions about age differences in food marketing dynamics. In many studies, age ranges overlap, making it difficult to establish a concrete age at which susceptibility changes. In addition, many of the adult studies limited participation to young adults, so little is known about middle-aged and older adults. Some studies were cross-sectional or had small sample sizes, limiting their generalizability. Longitudinal designs would allow researchers to determine whether repeated exposure produces lasting changes in consumption behavior over time. Questionnaires are widely used in this field and have the benefit of low cost, but they can give rise to a variety of sources of bias. For instance, subjects could misremember certain food choices, frequencies or quantities, or have recency bias. More objective consumption measures, such as collecting grocery receipts alongside questionnaires, could improve accuracy. Future research could also examine related outcomes such as purchasing behavior and intent to consume, broadening understanding of how marketing affects food behavior.
These methodological considerations notwithstanding, this literature raises ethical questions about marketing products that may be detrimental to health. The evidence is strongest for children and adolescents, and suggests that a prohibition on all forms of unhealthy food advertising may be desirable to protect young people. Whether such restrictions are justified for adults is less clear from the evidence reviewed here; however, because much of the marketing young people encounter, particularly online, is not targeted at them specifically, a prohibition covering all audiences may be the most practical way to limit their exposure.
Conclusion
Results from the research reviewed in this paper show that exposure to marketing for energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods and drinks is associated with greater consumption of unhealthy foods, but that the strength of this relationship declines and becomes more variable with age. Children had the clearest evidence of being susceptible to marketing, with experimental studies showing they consume more food after viewing unhealthy food advertisements. Adolescents continue to show relationships between marketing and their food choices, with online marketing and social media influencers becoming common sources. Adults had less consistent results, suggesting that psychological factors, personal preferences and other individual characteristics play a larger role.
Because much of this research is cross-sectional, self-reported, or limited to short-term experimental responses, and because age ranges and methods differ across studies, future research should use longitudinal designs, controlled experiments and consistent measures of consumption to establish how susceptibility to marketing changes with age. More interdisciplinary research between psychology, public health, nutrition and marketing could increase our understanding of the factors affecting food choices. This evidence may help create more effective ways to reduce exposure to unhealthy food marketing and encourage healthier eating behaviors.
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