Is Facebook Marketing Junk Food to Young Adults and Teens?

We already knew that too much social media may not be a good thing, but is Facebook marketing junk food to people? We don’t want to believe it’s true because we love using this social media site and others like it. As a matter of fact, when the site first started, you didn’t even see a lot of advertising at all. Times have changed, however, and as the site has evolved, marketing has gotten more intense and users have grown. It’s very easy to track demographics, so a lot of food companies and well-known brands are cashing in on the opportunity of offering junk food to these users.

It’s hard to prove is Facebook marketing junk food to young adults and teens, but it’s certainly a potential problem that’s being examined. This all started when the site started to sell advertising spots, which means giving out user information. In essence, this is a more complicated problem since the users don’t want their privacy violated. It’s not just your imagination, then, when you are using Facebook and other related sites and notice that the ads are catered towards your age, gender, and user preferences. Targeted ads for junk food seem to be aimed at the younger users.

Old Tactic That Is Showing Up in Social Media

Assuming that this proves to be true, why is Facebook marketing junk food to kids? For one, they know that the younger segment uses the site often, so these ads appear frequently. Kids who view these ads repeatedly will be more likely to eat the unhealthy snacks without even thinking. It’s a marketing tactic that works well with this particular demographic. However, though this may work well as a business tactic, many are arguing that such marketing is working against the childhood obesity problem that others are working to get under control. After all, obesity causes real harm to many young people.

So is Facebook marketing junk food a reality? Are they truly targeting the younger demographic and going after them with brands and foods that could hurt their health? This may be true, but it’s a very common marketing tactic used in other areas. Despite being the norm in the marketing world, however, it may exacerbate the childhood obesity epidemic. Therefore, some control may be needed on the part of marketers. Being aware of this and teaching your kids to try to avoid or ignore these ads is vital. It’s a matter of education, as with anything else on social media or, more generally, with safe internet use by young people.