Social Media Accounts of Food and Beverage Brands Have Disproportionately More Black and Hispanic Followers than White Followers

Introduction

The National Academy of Medicine has identified food advertisements (“ads”) as a major driver of poor diet and childhood obesity.^1–6 In the United States, Black and Hispanic youth are disproportionately targeted with food and beverage ads that promote unhealthy foods and beverages. ⁷ In 2017, food companies spent nearly $13 billion on food ads across all platforms (e.g., television [TV] and social media), including $787 million on Hispanic-targeted TV ads and $333 million on Black-targeted TV ads. ⁸ Between 2013 and 2017, spending on Black-targeted TV ads increased by 50%. ⁸

These racially targeted marketing practices may reflect companies' recognition of the cultural and financial power of communities of color, but targeted marketing can be problematic for public health when companies promote products that contribute to disparities in diet-related health outcomes. ⁹ Food companies have identified Black youth as a valuable market segment because of their high media use, spending patterns, and role as cultural trendsetters. ⁹ However few studies have examined food advertising exposure among Black and Hispanic communities, and most of those studies have focused on TV or outdoor ads.^9–15

Although TV advertising remains the most popular promotional channel, social media is growing rapidly. ¹² In 2018, almost all adolescents reported that they own a smartphone, and 90% of adolescents use social media. ¹¹ The most frequently used sites among adolescents are YouTube (85%), SnapChat (69%), Instagram (72%), Facebook (51%), and Twitter (32%), and most adolescents report using multiple platforms. ¹⁶ Companies now dedicate substantial portions of their marketing expenditures to social media. ¹⁷ There was ∼570% increase in social media account creation by food and beverage companies between 2007 and 2016. ¹⁸ These online platforms provide companies with the opportunity to more precisely track and interact with potential consumers through previously unavailable methods, such as geo-location targeting and creating free accounts that users can “follow” (e.g., @Sprite).^19,20

Following a food and beverage brand account allows users to engage with brands by “liking,” commenting, or sharing the company's posts with others in their social network. This level of engagement is unique to social media marketing and increases companies' access to consumers, particularly adolescents.^21,22 Although empirical data are limited, market research suggests that learning about new products is the most common reason consumers engage with brands on social media. ²³

Business marketing literature indicates that brand engagement affects purchase intent and actual purchases.^24–26 In one study commissioned by Twitter, positive Tweets that increased likelihood of “sharing” were nine times more effective in increasing video game sales compared with traditional advertising. Another study examining social media metrics and music album sales found that following music artists on social media was positively associated with increases in album sales. ²⁷ There are no published studies examining how engaging with food and beverage brands on social media influences purchase intent or actual purchases among Black or Hispanic youth. Exposure to targeted ads on social media, however, is likely designed to increase sales of advertised unhealthy products. Sales, and ultimately consumption, of these products may contribute to poor diet, obesity, and associated chronic conditions in these vulnerable groups.

Because adolescents face increased exposure to targeted ads on social media, two US Senators introduced bipartisan legislation in 2019 to update the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act, which regulates how companies collect and use online data from children (age <13 years) and stipulates the extent to which children can be targeted with online ads. ²⁸ The Senators' proposal aimed to expand protections (e.g., further limit data collected from children online), apply the protections to adolescents up to age 15 years, and eliminate racially targeted marketing practices online (e.g., via geo-tagging features). ²⁹

But there is a critical gap in our understanding of the online landscape of racially targeted food advertising: no studies, to our knowledge, have examined whether there is an association between racially targeted marketing practices and the number of adolescents who engage with advertisements on social media. Objective data on Black and Hispanic followers of food and beverage companies are critical for determining the extent to which policies should regulate online advertising that targets adolescents of color.

To address this gap in the literature, we analyzed social media data from Instagram and Twitter. This study aimed to: (1) quantify the percentage of Black, Hispanic, and White individuals who follow food and beverage brands; (2) compare whether unhealthy food brands and sugary drink brands have higher percentages of Black and Hispanic followers relative to all social media accounts; (3) determine whether sugary drink brands have more Black and Hispanic followers compared with low-calorie drink brands; and (4) examine the association between targeted marketing practices to youth of color and the percentage of Black, Hispanic, and White users who follow food and beverage brands.

Methods

Results

There were an estimated total of 55.9 million users who followed the 27 food/beverage brands on Instagram, and 17.3 million users who followed the brands on Twitter in January 2019, including users who followed multiple accounts on both Instagram and Twitter (Table 1). An estimated total of 17.7 million and 6.8 million followers of the selected brands had geo-enabled network settings on Instagram and Twitter, respectively.

Discussion

These data show that the 27 food and beverage brands in our sample maintained a total of 73.2 million followers on Twitter and Instagram as of 2019, including some users who may follow multiple accounts on both platforms. This study provides the first evidence, to our knowledge, demonstrating that popular food and beverage brands have a disproportionately higher percentage of Black and Hispanic followers relative to users who follow other social media accounts.

Our study also provides new evidence to show that racially targeted advertising ratios are associated with a higher percentage of Black followers—and a lower percentage of White followers—of popular food and beverage brands (Table 4). Sprite (140 calories per serving) and Fanta (160 calories per serving), for example, are sugary beverage brands that target Black youth more than zero-calorie beverage brands like Diet Coke and Dasani Water. All three brands are owned by the same parent company (Coca-Cola) and yet 22.7% of Sprite's Twitter followers are Black, whereas 10.0% of Diet Coke's and 8.1% of Dasani's Twitter followers are Black. Companies like Coca-Cola should promote a balance of healthy beverages to all consumers, rather than disproportionately targeting sugary drinks to communities that experience high rates of diabetes and obesity. ⁴¹

Nearly half (40.0%) of social media followers in our sample had geo-enabled network settings, which facilitates companies' use of their location for targeted marketing. Although geo-targeting may be convenient for individuals who receive coupons to nearby stores, such targeting holds the potential to exacerbate health disparities if companies promote coupons for unhealthy products to communities that experience high rates of obesity and diabetes. ⁴² In response to growing concerns about the unique features of social media marketing, two U.S. Senators introduced bipartisan legislation in March 2019 to update the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act, including restricting companies' use of geo-targeting and racially targeted advertising. ²⁹ Our data reinforce the need for such an expansion.

These findings build on previous research that examined website traffic of food and beverage brands that target Black and Hispanic youth. ⁴³ The authors used ComScore data to report that Hispanic youth were more likely to visit websites for food and beverages that target Hispanic consumers than non-Hispanic youth. ⁴³ Our findings also corroborate previous research showing that non-Hispanic Black and less-acculturated Hispanic adolescents were more likely than non-Hispanic White adolescents to engage with food and beverage brands on social media. ⁴⁴ Although we did not assess why some Black and Hispanic social media users choose to follow food and beverage brands, other studies found that Black and Hispanic consumers report feeling valued by food and beverage companies that target members of their racial/ethnic group. ⁴⁵

We also found that sugary drink brands have higher percentages of Black and Hispanic followers than low-calorie drink brands on Twitter, which may be driven by racially targeted marketing practices of sugary drink brands. The opposite pattern was true for low-calorie drink brands, which had higher percentages of White followers than sugary drink brands. Overall in the United States, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data indicate that, among a sample of 16,492 youth, ∼19% drank low-calorie sweetened beverages. ⁴⁶ Given that Black and Hispanic youth and adults experience high rates of obesity and diabetes relative to other racial/ethnic groups, it is critical to develop policy interventions that address unhealthy food ads that target adolescents of color.

Our study had several limitations. We were not able to identify any sources of data that report social media ad expenditures made by food and beverage brands, but we posit that measures of targeted marketing on television are adequate proxies. This is because we expect relative differences in expenditures on racially targeted advertising on TV and social media to be consistent across brands, although absolute expenditures may differ within brands. For example, greater expenditures on racially targeted advertising for Sprite versus Diet Coke on TV likely translates to a similar difference in ad expenditures for Sprite versus Diet Coke on social media. In the future, academic institutions may consider working with commercial vendors who specialize in aggregating digital advertising data and optimizing the collection of such data for research opportunities (e.g., including more data on Hispanic consumers and more detailed data on advertising expenditures).

Another limitation is that Demographics Pro did not have data on all 27 brands across Instagram and Twitter, which limited our ability to compare Instagram and Twitter followers' demographics. We also lacked data to characterize the extent to which the brands in our sample targeted Hispanic consumers, although we used data on food and beverage company expenditures on Spanish-language television as a proxy, and lacked targeted ratios for adult social media users. Furthermore, the data from Demographics Pro are inferences based on consumers' social media presence and usage, which may not accurately reflect actual demographics of users. Despite these limitations, our study is the first to characterize the link between brands' targeted food marketing practices and the demographics of social media users who followed such brands.

Conclusions

In our sample, food and beverage brands that heavily target youth of color have a disproportionately higher percentage of Black followers—and a disproportionately lower percentage of White followers—compared with brands that do not heavily target youth of color. The positive association between racially targeted marketing and percentage of Black social media followers is concerning for public health nutrition. Exposure to food advertising is a major driver of poor diet among youth, and Black and Hispanic youth are disproportionately targeted with the least healthy food products.^8,14 Such targeting is concerning given our findings show that food and beverage brands have a disproportionately high percentage of Black and Hispanic followers relative to White followers.

In addition, sugary drink brands have a higher percentage of Hispanic followers relative to low-calorie drink brands. Given that many of these brands promote sugary drinks and unhealthy fast food products to Black and Hispanic children and adolescents, it is possible that food marketing on social media contributes to poor dietary habits and disparities in obesity risk among youth of color.