Article Text
PDF
Abstract
Introduction TikTok has over one billion monthly users and is particularly popular among children. We examined the (1) use of owned media by major unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage brands on TikTok and (2) nature of branded hashtag challenges instigated by such brands and the user-generated content created in response.
Methods We assessed the (1) content of all videos posted on the accounts of 16 top food and non-alcoholic beverage brands (based on global brand share) as at 30 June 2021, and (2) content and sentiment of a sample of brand-relevant user-generated content created in response to branded hashtag challenges instigated by these brands.
Results Of 539 videos posted by brands, 60% were posted in the first half of 2021. The most common marketing strategies were branding (87% of videos), product images (85%), engagement (31%) and celebrities/influencers (25%). Engagement included instigation of branded hashtag challenges that encouraged creation of user-generated content featuring brands’ products, brands’ videos and/or branded effects. The total collective views of user-generated content from single challenges ranged from 12.7 million to 107.9 billion. Of a sample of 626 brand-relevant videos generated in response to these challenges, 96% featured branding, 68% product images and 41% branded effects. Most portrayed a positive (73%) or neutral/unclear (25%) sentiment, with few negative (3%).
Conclusion Unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverage brands are using TikTok to market brands and products via their own accounts and to encourage users to create and share their own content that features branding and product images. Given TikTok’s popularity among children, this study supports the need for policies that protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing on social networking platforms.
- child health
- health policy
- nutrition
- public health
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The videos analysed were publicly accessible at the time of coding. No videos were locally downloaded or copied. Access to the coded video content and sentiment will require a request for modification of the ethics approval.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The videos analysed were publicly accessible at the time of coding. No videos were locally downloaded or copied. Access to the coded video content and sentiment will require a request for modification of the ethics approval.
Footnotes
Handling editor Seye Abimbola
Twitter @RubyBrooks___, @nnniccc, @fp_martino, @kbackholer
Contributors RB and KB conceptualised the study. RB and RC analysed, had access to and verified the underlying data. RB wrote the original draft. All authors contributed to review and editing and were responsible for the decision to submit the manuscript. RB is the guarantor.
Funding KB and RB were funded through a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (102047). The funding source had no involvement in the study design; collection, analysis and interpretation of data; writing of the paper or decision to submit the paper for publication.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.