Creating consumers (how the food industry delivers its products and messages to elementary school students and what nutrition professionals know and think about it)

Even a cursory review of business marketing publications reveals that food industry marketers are heavily penetrating elementary schools with their products and messages. But these marketing programs have not been critically examined by nutrition professionals, and what they know and think about such programs is unknown. In Phase I of this two-phased study, examples of elementary school-based food industry marketing programs were gathered from a wide variety of sources and grouped into four categories. The findings demonstrated that products and messages about products reach students by many routes: Brand-name foods are served, advertised and promoted in school cafeterias (Category 1); products and coupons are distributed to students in classrooms and during field trips; students collect product labels and register receipts redeemable for school equipment and sell products in school fundraisers (Category 2); product advertisements reach students via textbook covers, magazines, newspapers, posters, radio, videos, Internet, and teaching materials (Category 3); and food industry teaching materials and contests incorporate sponsors' products or promote sponsors' brands (Category 4). These categories of marketing programs formed the basis of Phase II, in which a survey questionnaire designed to ascertain what nutrition professionals know of and think about such programs was mailed to a random sample of 689 members of the American Dietetic Association's School Nutrition Services Practice Group and the Society for Nutrition Education's Nutrition Education for Children Division. Sixty-one percent responded. Virtually all respondents were aware of food industry programs, primarily through professional meetings, journal advertisements, and direct contact by food companies and trade groups. Most thought industry programs affect eating behavior and are likely to influence student consumption of sponsors' products. Although most respondents considered the food industry an ally, a majority also believed that a program's acceptability depends on the nutritional value of the sponsor's products. There seemed to be little awareness that nutritional value notwithstanding, food industry marketers' goal of creating customers is incompatible with the public service goal of most nutrition professionals. Nor did the majority of respondents express doubt about the "educational" effect of marketing programs whose real goal is uncritical allegiance to a point of view.