Brazilians’ dietary patterns and nutritional status have changed adversely in the last few decades( Reference Levy, Claro and Bandoni 1 – Reference Bielemann, Motta and Minten 4 ). The percentage of total energy acquired from ultra-processed food products (UPP) in Brazilian households increased from 20·8 to 25·4 % between 2002–2003 and 2008–2009( Reference Martins, Levy and Claro 5 ), and more than 50 % of the adult population is now overweight( Reference Malta, Andrade and Claro 6 ).
UPP are ‘ready-to-consume’ products, made up mostly or entirely of substances extracted from other foods (oils, fats, sugar, proteins) and derived from food constituents (hydrogenated fats, modified starches) or synthesized foods based on organic materials (dyes, flavourings, enhancers and other additives)( Reference Monteiro, Cannon and Levy 7 ). They are energy-dense foods, highly palatable, and available in most food stores. These foods lead to overconsumption, weight gain and development of non-communicable diseases. Some examples of UPP are carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, cookies, mass-produced packaged breads and buns, breakfast ‘cereals’, ‘meat and chicken extracts’ and ‘instant’ sauces( Reference Monteiro, Cannon and Levy 7 ). UPP are the main type of products promoted in food marketing techniques.
Scientific evidence about food marketing and indivi-dual food consumption is centred on television publicity and its impact on children’s dietary intake. The number of hours a child is exposed to television is associated with body weight and unhealthy food consumption. Early exposure to food marketing contributes to food brand loyalty, which can last one’s whole life( Reference Akçil Ok M, Ercan and Kaya 8 – Reference Gwozdz and Reisch 13 ).
With the advent of the Internet, new types of food marketing emerged for use in social media apps such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. These apps allowed more attractive and persuasive marketing techniques with greater interaction with the consumer; they include photos, videos, music and games. The impact of this type of marketing on food consumption remains unknown for all age categories( Reference Montgomery, Chester and Grier 14 – Reference Freeman, Kelly and Baur 16 ).
Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in Brazil. It is estimated that sixty-two million Brazilians access this app every day( 17 ). Facebook is available for individuals or companies, including the food industry. Few studies exist on food marketing on Facebook and only one study has investigated food marketing content on Facebook in Australia( Reference Freeman, Kelly and Baur 16 ).
Considering Brazilian’s epidemiological scenario and the spread of food marketing on Facebook, the present study aimed to analyse the content and extent of marketing of UPP brand pages, which are continuously accessed by the Brazilian population.
Findings from this investigation provide a description of how UPP brands promote their products on Facebook and which marketing techniques are used. We believe this description is the first step in understanding the marketing of UPP on social media, their influence on consumer behaviour and the possibility of regulations. The study will also help assess the specifics of food marketing around the world by providing data to be used in country comparisons.
Methods
We identified the 250 most liked pages on Facebook by Brazilians in October 2015 using the Socialbakers’ rank (www.socialbakers.com). Socialbakers provides a freely available list of the top 1000 Facebook pages by ‘likes’ across a range of industries, with the option to filter likes by user country. From these pages, 234 were excluded because they were related to television stations, soap operas, celebrities, banks, beauty products, soccer players, alcoholic drinks or other products. Therefore, the sample for the present study consisted of sixteen pages related to UPP (Table 1). Pages can be from Brazilian companies or global brands that Brazilians ‘liked’ and were printed in the Portuguese language.
Table 1 Ultra-processed food product brands marketed on Facebook in Brazil, October 2015
* The number of unique users who added a page to their news feed and a section about their profile.
† The number of unique users who created a story about a page in a 7 d period. On Facebook, stories are items that are displayed via news feed. Users create stories they like, post on a page wall, like a post, comment on a post, share a post, answer a question, RSVP to a page’s event, mention the page in a post, tag the page in a photo, check in at a place, share a check-in deal, like a check-in deal, write a recommendation or claim an offer.
‡ The percentage of people talking about a page divided by the number of users who liked the page.
For each brand in the study, we investigated its Socialbakers’ ranking, product category (soda, chocolate, fast food, sweet, chewing gum, ice cream and restaurant), date (month and year) of the first posting, and absolute and relative frequency of likes and people and members ‘talking about’ the page.
We also analysed fifteen marketing techniques (Table 2) used by brands in the year before the present study (September 2014 to October 2015). The techniques were those defined by Freeman et al.( Reference Freeman, Kelly and Baur 16 ).
Table 2 Marketing techniques used by ultra-processed food product brands (n 16) on Facebook in Brazil, September 2014–October 2015
Finally, each page was analysed for one month, 23 September to 23 October 2015, regarding publicity comprehensiveness. The numbers of posts, likes, ‘shares’ and ‘commentaries’ were registered, and the mean number of likes, shares and commentaries per post were calculated.
All analyses were conducted by two researchers, with the results compared and the divergences verified. Data were tabulated with Microsoft® Excel 2010, in addition to absolute and relative frequency calculations.
Results
Among the sample, two brands were more popular (the combined number of likes represented 50 % of the total number of likes): Coke® (93 673 979 likes, 35·0 %) and McDonald’s® (59 749 819 likes, 22·3 %; Table 1).
Regarding people talking about the pages, McDonald’s ranked highest with 555 891 (25·7 %) commentaries. This was followed by Coke (287 274 commentaries, 13·3 %), Burger King® (246 148 commentaries, 11·4 %) and Kibon® (244 523 commentaries, 11·3 %; Table 1).
Burger King had the highest percentage of members ‘commenting’ on the posts (4·96 %; Table 1). All brands used photos, elements, links directing users to other pages and conversations. Videos were registered on 93·8 % (n 15) of pages; promotions that offer advantages such as special prices and rewards on 68·8 % (n 11); and celebrities on 62·5 % (n 10) of pages (Table 2).
Finally, in terms of marketing comprehensiveness over one month, some brands published more than once per day: Garoto® (1·83), Outback® (1·43) and Coke (1·07). Kibon reached the highest mean of likes per post (285 845·50) and Burger King had the highest mean number of shares per post (10 083·93) and commentaries per post (7958·13; Table 3).
Table 3 Monthly coverage of ultra-processed food product marketing on Facebook in Brazil, 23 September–23 October 2015
Discussion
The present study is the first to describe the scope and diversity of marketing strategies by UPP brands on Facebook, which is frequently accessed by Brazilians. In this medium in which people interact with each other, brands are also part of the marketing techniques to improve consumption, including UPP brands. Approximately 6 % of the 250 most liked Facebook pages are for UPP brands, and among the ten most liked Facebook pages by Brazilians, two are UPP brands.
Our findings similarly corroborate findings of an analysis of UPP marketing on Facebook in Australia, in which twenty-seven UPP brands used photos and other marketing techniques to promote their product. In addition, many of these brands also used videos, celebrities, gift offers and rewards( Reference Freeman, Kelly and Baur 16 ). Studies conducted in other countries can offer more evidence about UPP marketing on Facebook worldwide, thereby providing more data for comparison.
Other studies that analysed marketing content in digital media indicated similar results. In the USA, websites directed at children used brand elements, links to other pages, promotions and special prices, gifts and rewards( Reference Henry and Story 18 ). Another study demonstrated that soda is the main product promoted online on a website directed at children in the USA( Reference Ustjanauskas, Harris and Schwartz 19 ).
The problem of promoting UPP is related to the fact that their consumption is associated with dyslipidaemia in children, metabolic syndrome in adolescents and obesity at all ages( Reference Rauber, Campagnolo and Hoffman 20 – 23 ). In addition, their means of production, distribution, marketing and consumption lead to damage to culture, social life and the environment( Reference Monteiro, Cannon and Levy 7 ).
Although eating habits are understood as individual preferences that coincide with the principle of freedom, they are influenced strongly by food advertising( Reference Vukmirovic 24 ), denoting the relevance of assessing new forms of advertising food products on social media and of controlling its content.
Marketing on social media is not what tends to be used on television networks, which also allow multidimensional actions involving social media and online apps( Reference Montgomery, Chester and Grier 14 ). With the advent of mobile devices, Facebook can be accessed anytime v. television commercials, which are limited to breaks in programming, while marketing on Facebook is available continuously( Reference Montgomery, Chester and Grier 14 , Reference Freeman, Kelly and Baur 16 ).
Social media allows the user to interact with the brand page content, which can be visible to all other users of the app and enhance the extent of marketing savvy. Thus, social media facilitates word-of-mouth marketing to go viral and spread a message to an exponential number of people( Reference Kaplan and Haenlein 25 ).
In Brazil, in 2015, 42 % of the population accessed the Internet and 76 % of them used it daily for approximately 4 h. The main reasons given were to obtain general information (67 %), to have fun and be entertained (67 %), to enjoy one’s free time (38 %), and to study and learn (24 %). Among social media and chat programs, Facebook (83 %) and WhatsApp (58 %) were the ones most used by the population( 26 ). Although almost all Brazilians have access to television (97 %) with 73 % of them watching it daily, the number of hours spent viewing television (4 h 30 min per d) is close to that mentioned for Internet use( 26 ).
Regulating UPP marketing in Brazil faces divergent interests between governing sectors and the food industry. On the one hand, there are strategies proposed by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária; ANVISA) that aim to promote the protection of human rights to adequate and healthy foods by examining the purpose and content of food marketing. On the other hand, there is a regulated sector that claims the control of food publicity interferes with economic freedom and that such regulations would constitute censorship of commercial expression( Reference Henriques, Dias and Burlandy 27 ).
In accordance with our results, discussions about UPP marketing regulation in Brazil must be extended to all social media. One potential way of regulating food marketing in the media is defining which techniques can be used for each type of product and for which sector of the population. For example, in accordance with the study of the impact of each marketing technique on children’s food consumption, legislation could better define abusing the interaction with children on specific pages and the use of photos or videos. Social control can help achieve successful regulation, with the concomitant proposition of a complaint channel inside Facebook.
Our study presented the size and profile of UPP marketing on Facebook in Brazil. Despite its relevance, it did not include paid publicity; in this vein, we expect a greater extent of food publicity on Facebook than what has been described herein. In addition, we did not study the profile of fans of brand pages. Finally, the study was descriptive, thus disabling hypothesis formulation. Further studies in this field will contribute to an understanding of the UPP food marketing on Facebook and its impact on food consumption and health profiles of Facebook users.
Acknowledgements
Financial support: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. Conflict of interest: None. Authorship: P.M.H. participated in project preparation, data collection, database construction, data analysis and manuscript writing. F.T.R. participated in data collection, database construction, data analysis and manuscript writing. L.C.S. participated in project preparation and critical revision of the manuscript. Ethics of human subject participation: Not applicable.
