Obesity has become one of the most pressing public health issues of the modern era. While at the most basic level obesity is the result of a simple ‘energy in – energy out’ equation, research shows that the behaviours that surround this equation are clearly infl uenced by the food environments. This has led researchers to look closely at mapping and monitoring the range of tactics that are used by industry to stimulate the consumption of unhealthy food products, as well as the policy responses that are needed to effectively tackle these food environments¹.

Unhealthy food marketing and sport

One specific form of marketing that has received attention is the promotion and alignment of unhealthy foods and beverages during sporting matches. Sport has been identified as a particularly influential marketing channel as it allows companies to align their products with activities that are perceived as healthy and that have a positive impact on communities. However, public health experts have expressed concern about the alignments of advertising for unhealthy food products and sport², with this form of marketing infl uencing children’s perceptions and families purchasing habits of unhealthy foods³. A key concern is children’s repeat exposure to unhealthy brands during sports⁴ with studies showing that children have implicit recall of the unhealthy brands associated with sport⁵.

The extent of unhealthy food and beverage marketing in sport

A number of researchers have attempted to quantify the amount of time spent advertising unhealthy foods and beverages during sporting matches. These studies have sought to examine the amount of advertising embedded within sporting matches (for example via sponsorship, jumper logos, boarding around the ground, or in game announcements) and formal commercial break advertising. In Australia these studies have focused on a number of nationally significant sports – including the Australian Football League, national Cricket series, and the National Rugby League. This research has shown a number of significant findings about the placement of advertising for unhealthy food or “junk food” products during sporting broadcasts. Sherriff and colleagues (2010), found that advertising for unhealthy food and alcohol products was visible during 44% and 74% of game footage for three televised professional cricket events⁶. A similar study identifi ed an average of 17 episodes and 2.74 minutes of unhealthy food and beverage marketing per match during a national sporting series⁷. Finally, a study conducted in the Australian state of Victoria found that television viewers in this state were exposed to a higher volume of junk food and alcohol advertising during television sports broadcasts than during other television programming, with nearly half (45.7%) of all junk food advertisements shown during sporting matches from July 2010 – January 20118. This study also found that viewers had signifi cantly more time exposure to alcohol, junk food and sugary drink products through ingame advertising than in-break advertising. Finally, in a study of sports websites in New Zealand, Carter and colleagues [2013] found that both healthy and unhealthy brands sponsored sport.

Implications for Public Health

There are a number of implications for health promotion and public health interventions. Firstly will be the requirements for policy initiatives which aim to redress the balance between the promotion of healthy and unhealthy products during sport. This may include regulatory efforts, including initiatives which seek to limit the amount of exposure during sporting activities that may be highly viewed by children. Incentives are also required to encourage local and national level sporting codes to move towards relationships with products that are health promoting and that provide opportunities for a new range of messages about healthy food consumption and sport.