A critical review of evidence on the sociocultural impacts of food marketing and policy implications

Historically, responsible marketing policy development has drawn on a substantive research agenda regarding the micro level effects of marketing on food choice. In contrast there has been almost no research on macro level effects. To date public health has been the main disciplinary source of evidence. As a first step towards exploring the significance of this evidence gap, a critically interpretive review of evidence on the effects of food marketing on the sociocultural food environment was conducted. A review of reviews approach was used to search for evidence across a broad multi-disciplinary range of evidence sources. This was supplemented with snowball searches of the reference lists of the identified reviews and included studies. Ten reviews and 31 individual studies met review inclusion criteria. Evidence of impacts on dietary norms, population level shifts in food and drink category preferences and in the cultural values underpinning food behaviours were identified. The review also identified evidence for two mechanisms of effect. The findings represent preliminary evidence in support of the case for the responsible marketing policy research agenda to be expanded from its historical focus on micro level impacts to include research directly focused on its macro level impacts. Expanding research scope to include a much stronger focus on evidence regarding the impacts of for-profit food marketing on the sociocultural food environment would provide direct research support to the strategic policy aim of creating a food environment that encourages healthy food behaviours.