Food Industry

FAST FOOD TARGETED MARKETING

Fast food marketers target specific groups with advertising. In particular, children, teens, AfricanAmerican youth and Hispanic youth. Each of these groups are targeted with marketing containing content that appeals to them specifically. Some of these groups are exposed to more fast food advertising overall.

Click on the links below to find out how fast food restaurants target these groups and the impact it is having on their purchasing behavior.

Children Teens African American Youth Hispanic Youth Sources

FAST FOOD MARKETING

Targeting children

Advertising targeted to children directly

•  Some fast food advertising appeals specifically to children.

Characteristics of these ads include fun messages, movie tie-ins, kids’ meal promotions and licensed characters. On the internet, characteristics include advergames and virtual worlds. Branding is prominent in child-targeted ads, while food is not. When food is shown, most restaurants feature their healthy options. McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway and Dairy Queen target children directly with their TV and/or internet advertising. McDonald’s and Burger King target children the most. On TV, children see one of their child-targeted ads each day.1 On the internet, their child-targeted sites are visited most often.2 McDonald’s advertises to children as young as age 2. It even has a website for preschoolers: Ronald.com.

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“Second-hand” exposure

•  The majority of fast food ads children see are intended for

an older audience. •  Children see more than two ads per day promoting the same unhealthy menu items and value messages that appear in general audience advertising. •  Children frequently visit fast food restaurant main websites (i.e., those intended for general audience). PizzaHut.com and Dominos.com are visited the most, each with 430,000+ youth visitors monthly.2 Outcomes

•  Children most frequently request to go to the restaurants

that engage in the...