Fast-food giants and TikTok build base of child brand ambassadors
Hashtag challenges have junior TikTok users becoming unwitting junk ambassadors, as experts say the world’s biggest fast-food names use the platform to bait kids into building their brands
READING LEVEL: ORANGE
Children are becoming viral brand ambassadors* for fast-food giants and attracting billions of views while promoting unhealthy food and drink on TikTok, new research shows.
Some of the most popular fast-food giants, including McDonald’s, Pepsi, Cheetos, Doritos, Starbucks and 7-Eleven use hashtag challenges to encourage children to market their products.
Researchers from Deakin University’s Global Obesity Centre analysed the TikTok content of 16 of the world’s top-selling food and non-alcoholic beverage brands.
They found a range of marketing strategies encouraging children to create and share videos featuring their branding and products.
One of the researchers, Associate Professor Kathryn Backholer, said it was an “incredibly insidious* strategy by TikTok and junk food marketing companies” that turned children into active participants in the marketing of junk food.
“TikTok’s own website describes these challenges as an opportunity for companies to turn TikTok users into their ‘unofficial brand ambassadors’ and we know that many TikTok users are children,” she said.
A TikTok spokesperson said the safety of its user community was a top priority.
“We have clear advertising policies on what is and isn’t allowed to be advertised on TikTok,” the spokesperson said. “Our policies explicitly state that ads for HFSS (high fat, sugar and salt) foods should not feature a specific call to purchase and should not be aimed at users aged 16 years and under.”
But despite official company policy, TikTok is popular among children, with a third of users aged 14 and under.
Examples include chip brand Doritos, which created a hashtag challenge for children to create and share videos of themselves eating one of their products.
McDonald’s asked users to record themselves singing alongside a video featuring images of a McDonald’s product.
Such posts portrayed* a positive sentiment* and were viewed billions of times, A/Prof Backholer said.
A single hashtag challenge started by Pepsi collectively received 107.9 billion views.
Celebrities are also used to appeal to children and induce* them to promote the brands.
McDonald’s used the K-pop band BTS to promote the “BTS meal”, which had a product code on packaging that unlocked a branded effect on TikTok.
“Strong government-led policies to protect children from the harmful impact of unhealthy food marketing are urgently needed,” A/Prof Backholer said. “This is about putting our children’s health before industry profits.”
Lead author and associate research fellow Ruby Brooks said that such food marketing “influences kids’ food preferences, purchasing, requests, and consumption”.
“These companies predominantly* sell unhealthy foods and the use of tactics* like these is likely to drive increased selection and consumption of these foods,” she said.
GLOSSARY
- ambassadors: people who represent, speak for, or advertise organisations, activities, brands
- insidious: something unpleasant or dangerous that gradually and secretly causes harm
- portrayed: the way something or someone is represented, described, displayed
- sentiment: attitude, opinion, or idea about a situation, way of thinking about something
- induce: to persuade someone to do something, or to cause something to happen
- predominantly: mainly, chiefly, for the most part
- tactics: specific action intended to get a particular result
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QUICK QUIZ
- The Deakin University study analysed the TikTok content of how many junk food brands?
- A third of TikTok users are of what age?
- What specific kind of challenges are these brands using to induce kids to participate?
- The Pepsi challenge received how many views?
- How did McDonald’s use K-pop band BTS?
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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Make the rules
Write a list of rules or guidelines that you think would stop junk food companies using kids to help market their products on TikTok or any other social media platform.
Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Health and Physical Education; Personal and Social Capability
2. Extension
Should the government step in and control what food companies are doing, or should kids be educated so that they don’t take part in these challenges?
Write a piece of persuasive writing that answers this question.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Personal and Social Capability; Health and Physical Education; Civics and Citizenship
VCOP ACTIVITY
Read this!
A headline on an article – or a title on your text – should capture the attention of the audience, telling them to read this now. So choosing the perfect words for a headline or title is very important.
Create three new headlines for the events that took place in this article. Remember, what you write and how you write it will set the pace for the whole text, so make sure it matches.
Read out your headlines to a partner and discuss what the article will be about based on the headline you created. Discuss the tone and mood you set in just your few, short words. Does it do the article justice? Will it capture the audience’s attention the way you hoped? Would you want to read more?
Consider how a headline or title is similar to using short, sharp sentences throughout your text. They can be just as important as complex ones. Go through the last text you wrote and highlight any short, sharp sentences that capture the audience.