Unhealthy Food and Beverage Marketing to Children in the Digital Age: Global Research and Policy Challenges and Priorities

Food and nonalcoholic beverage marketing is implicated in poor diet andobesity in children. The rapid growth and proliferation of digital market-ing has resulted in dramatic changes to advertising practices and children'sexposure. The constantly evolving and data-driven nature of digital foodmarketing presents substantial challenges for researchers seeking to quan-tify the impact on children and for policymakers tasked with designingand implementing restrictive policies. We outline the latest evidence onchildren's experience of the contemporary digital food marketing ecosys-tem, conceptual frameworks guiding digital food marketing research, theimpact of digital food marketing on dietary outcomes, and the methods used to determine impact, and we consider the key research and policy challenges and priorities for thefield. Recent methodological and policy developments represent opportunities to apply novel andinnovative solutions to address this complex issue, which could drive meaningful improvementsin children's dietary health