Abstract
The consumption of unhealthy commodities (UHCs) – including unhealthy food, alcohol, tobacco and gambling products – contributes to substantial public health harm and tremendous social and economic costs. Consumption of UHCs is driven, in part, by increasingly sophisticated, persuasive and extensive product marketing. In Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), UHC marketing is largely self-regulated, reflecting the dominant neoliberal paradigm. This thesis aims to identify the nature and extent of children’s exposure to UHC marketing in NZ and to explore the political and economic context around UHC marketing regulation in NZ.
The first research component, the Unhealthy Commodity Marketing Study, is an ancillary analysis of two earlier studies, Kids’Cam and Kids’Cam Branding. Kids’Cam was a cross-sectional study in which children aged 11-13 (n=168) wore wearable cameras that automatically captured images of their environment over four days. In Kids’Cam Branding, image data from a subset of Kids’Cam participants (n=90) was coded to identify all instances of brand marketing. Subsequently, in the Unhealthy Commodity Marketing Study, children’s brand marketing exposures were analysed to identify their rate of exposure to UHC marketing, as well as ‘Healthy’ and ‘Other’ marketing.
Children were exposed to UHC marketing on average 76.2 times per day, nearly 2.5 times their daily exposure to ‘Healthy’ marketing. This exposure predominantly consisted of unhealthy food marketing (mean 68.4 daily exposures), followed by alcohol (mean 5.7 daily exposures), gambling (mean 2.1 daily exposures) and tobacco marketing (mean 0.1 daily exposures). These exposure rates align with the level of statutory regulation each UHC faces in NZ. The most common setting for UHC marketing exposures was food outlets, while the most common medium was product packaging. The most common UHC brand to which children were exposed was Coca-Cola (mean 6.3 daily exposures), followed by Cadbury, Tip Top, Bluebird and Powerade. Over half of children’s unhealthy food (54.9%) and alcohol (51.9%) marketing exposures were attributed to multinational corporations (MNCs). In contrast, statutory bodies are responsible for almost all (97.4%) of children’s gambling marketing exposure.
The second research component of this thesis utilises key informant interviews with policy stakeholders (n=15) to explore their perspectives on UHC marketing policy in NZ. Participants were purposively sought and grouped by sector, which included academics/advocates (n=6), bureaucrats (n=5) and politicians (n=4). Stakeholders were asked about current UHC marketing settings in NZ, their views on joint UHC marketing regulation and the barriers and facilitators such a policy would face in NZ. Policy stakeholders commented that the largely self-regulatory controls over UHC marketing in NZ are inadequate at protecting children from UHC marketing. In general, they supported joint UHC marketing regulation as a means of reducing children’s exposure but thought that it would face a multitude of barriers, many of which derive from the dominant neoliberal paradigm in NZ. Participants also identified many potential facilitators, including practical suggestions for advocates and potential shifts in the dominant political economy.
Overall, the findings of this thesis are supportive of the argument for statutory regulation of UHCs in NZ, which could include a joint regulatory approach.