Impact of food, beverage, and alcohol brand marketing on consumptive behaviours and health in children and adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Exposure to unhealthy food, beverage, and alcohol marketing can contribute to inadequate diet and excess alcohol consumption, both risk factors for diet-related non-communicable diseases including obesity and cancer. By not featuring specific products, brand-only marketing strategies circumvent restrictions that assess healthiness at the product level and restrict accordingly. Currently, there is no global or national government policy that explicitly addresses brand marketing for unhealthy products linked to diet-related non-communicable diseases. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizes contemporary evidence on the effects of food, beverage, and alcohol brand-marketing on diet-related cognitive outcomes (preference, choice), diet-related behavioral outcomes (purchase requests, purchase, consumption), and health-related outcomes (body weight, body mass index, obesity) in children and adults. Included studies manipulated acute marketing exposure, with at least one brand-only marketing condition. Fourteen databases were searched (including MEDLINE and PubMed) for articles published from January 2004 to February 2024. Nineteen eligible studies were identified and assessed for bias; five were included in the meta-analysis assessing effects on consumption. Findings from the review suggest brand marketing for food, beverages, and alcohol can influence preference, choice, and purchase intent. The meta-analysis found no evidence of a significant effect of brand-only marketing on consumption. Overall, evidence was limited and of mixed quality so further robust research is needed to inform regulatory action. Government policies for reducing brand-only marketing are needed to protect vulnerable populations from brand marketing promoting unhealthy consumption behaviors that increase the risk of non-communicable disease.