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Integrated Marketing Communications and Power Imbalance: The Strategic Nature of Marketing to Children and Adolescents by Food and Beverage Companies

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Advances in Communication Research to Reduce Childhood Obesity

Abstract

This chapter seeks to complement others in this book by highlighting the public health concerns associated with the use of the relatively new business practice of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) to promote energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages to children and adolescents, and the power imbalances inherent in this situation. Seeking to encourage international awareness and relevance of this issue we have attempted to take a global approach, while still recognizing the Australian context in which both authors work. To this end, we include three case studies of branded food products that target children as a means of demonstrating the reach and complexity of IMC in a contemporary marketplace.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the Centre for Sustainable and Responsible Organizations at Deakin University, Australia, for funding to assist with the development of this book chapter, and center members Kathryn Chalmers and Shwetha D’Souza for the assistance with the case studies. The authors also wish to acknowledge the Flinders University (Australia) Children and Food Marketing research project for assisting with funding to conduct the case studies contained within this chapter.

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  1. Deakin University, Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, VIC, 3216, Australia

    Paul Harrison & Michaela Jackson

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  1. Newark and New Brunswick, Management and Global Business Departmen, Rutgers Business School, 1 Washington Park Room 1040, Newark, 07102, New Jersey, USA

    Jerome D. Williams

  2. , Dept of Kinesiology and Health Education, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, D 3700, Austin, 78712, Texas, USA

    Keryn E. Pasch

  3. Johns Hopkins University, McElderry Street, Reed Hall 1620, Baltimore, 78613, Maryland, USA

    Chiquita A. Collins

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Harrison, P., Jackson, M. (2013). Integrated Marketing Communications and Power Imbalance: The Strategic Nature of Marketing to Children and Adolescents by Food and Beverage Companies. In: Williams, J., Pasch, K., Collins, C. (eds) Advances in Communication Research to Reduce Childhood Obesity. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5511-0_3

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