Digital food environment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil: an analysis of marketing strategies in a food delivery app.

This study aimed to describe the ads published in a food delivery app in Brazilian capitals, during 13th and 14th week of the pandemic. Data collection occurred on one day of the week and one day of the weekend and during lunch and dinner time. A random sample of 25% of the ads (n=1,754) published in this period was classified in accordance to the presence of healthy and unhealthy eating markers and to the use of marketing strategies. Almost 50% of the ads contained at least one unhealthy eating marker and 29.3% at least one healthy eating marker. Ads containing healthy eating markers were more frequent on the weekday (34.2% vs. 24.1% at the weekend) and at lunch (47.5% vs. 16.1% at dinner). Ads containing unhealthy eating markers were more common at the weekend (54.7% vs. 47.8% on the weekday) and at dinner (63.3% vs. 34.2% at lunch). The most common marketing strategies in the ads were: price discounts (91.7%), use of photos (94.0%) and free shipping (45.7%). Combos were frequent on weekday (2.1% vs. 26.4% at the weekend) in addition to photo use (95.2% vs. 92.7% at the weekend). Free shipping and combo strategies prevailed at dinner: 48.0% vs. 42.4% at lunch and 33.4% vs. 23.6% at lunch, respectively. In sum, food delivery app proved to be an obesogenic food environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. PMID: 33208203 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: The British Journal of Nutrition - Category: Nutrition Authors: Tags: Br J Nutr Source Type: research