Fighting Digital Marketing of Ultra Processed Foods: What you need to know and do

Regulating Digital Food and Beverage Marketing in the Artificial Intelligence & Surveillance Advertising Era

 Ultra-processed food companies and their retail, online-platform, quick-service-restaurant, media-network and advertising-technology (adtech) partners are expanding their targeting operations to push the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. A powerful array of personalized, data-driven and AI-generated digital food marketing is pervasive online, and also designed to influence us offline as well (such as when we are at convenience or grocery stores). CDD has a number of reports that reveal the extent of this development, including an analysis of the market, ways to research, and where policies and safeguards have been enacted.

 Unfortunately, there isn’t a single remedy to address such unhealthy marketing. Individuals and families can only do so much to reduce the effects of today’s pervasive tracking and targeting of people and communities via mobile phones, social media, and “smart” TVs. What’s required now is a coordinated set of policies and regulations to govern the ways ultra processed food companies and their allies conduct online advertising and data collection, especially when public health is involved. Such an effort, moreover, must be broad-based, addressing a variety of sectors, such as privacy, consumer protection, and antitrust. Formulating and advancing these policies will be an enormous challenge, but it is one that we cannot afford to ignore.

 CDD is working to address all of these issues and more. We closely follow the digital marketplace, especially from the food, beverage, retail and online-platform industries. We track, analyze and call attention to harmful industry practices, and are helping to build a stronger global movement of advocates dedicated to protecting all of us from this unfair and currently out-of-control system. We are happy to work with you to ensure everyone—in the U.S. and worldwide—can live healthier lives without being constantly exposed to fast-food and other harmful marketing designed to increase corporate bottom lines without regard to the human and environmental consequences.