Food and beverage companies, including fast food restaurants, are using powerful digital tactics to promote their product to kids and teens.  Leading brands are working with Facebook, Google and other social media and online sites; they target kids when they use their mobile phones and “apps” aiming specific ads directly at neighborhoods; they deliver ads on all the “screens” a young person may use—including phone, tablet, and PC.  These companies are now taking advantage of the capabilities of “Big Data” to create pinpoint “micro-targeting” campaigns that drive sales. 

Fast food marketers are testing out ads using “neuromarketing,” so the commercial pitch will penetrate into our emotions and unconscious.  Hispanic and African American youth are subjected to special campaigns by many leading fast food brands, including to take advantage of them as “influencers.”

Join @MomsRising and @DigitalDemoc on Friday, June 5, 2015 at 1pm Eastern as we discuss the following:

• How can we ensure young people aren’t subjected to interactive ads that are targeting them to buy unhealthy products? 
• What are the safeguards needed to protect their privacy and health? 
• And, more!

Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, who is helping fight the digital junk food marketers, will be tweeting.

Let's work together we can work together to protect kids online! Feel free to spread the word by clicking below!

To join and follow the conversation on Twitter use the #FoodFri Hashtag in each tweet.

You can also follow the chat on Twubs.com/FoodFri. Twubs allows you to follow MomsRising’s registered hashtags by creating an account. Below I have noted the steps.

1. Create an account using an email or your Twitter account.
2. Enter the desired hashtag, #FoodFri, #WellnessWed or #EcoTipTue, in the search box found at the top of the page. Click Enter. A new page will open with the desired chat.
3. Find the “Join This Twub” button found on the right-hand side bar and join the group.
4. Adjust the speed of the conversation to your liking. Options are: Fast, Medium, Slow, Slower, or Slowest.
5. Introduce yourself and join the conversation, by entering your comment, tips, or questions in the “Tweet to #FoodFri as [YourName] box”
6. Or, respond to a specific tweet by hovering over the right-hand side of the individual’s tweet and selecting one of the icons.

More about our #FoodFri Featured Panelist(s):

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The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) is one of the leading consumer protection and privacy organizations in the United States. Since its founding in 2001 (and prior to that through its predecessor organization, the Center for Media Education), CDD has been at the forefront of research, public education, and advocacy protecting consumers in the digital age. It has helped foster widespread debate, educating a spectrum of stakeholders, and creating a legacy of government and self-regulatory safeguards across a variety of Internet and digital media platforms. CDD’s public education programs are focused on informing consumers, policy makers, and the press about contemporary digital marketing issues, including their impact on public health, children and youth, and financial services.

Learn more about the CDD on their website, www.democraticmedia.org. You can also follow the CDD on Twitter and Facebook. They also have a Facebook page dedicated to digital ads - facebook.com/digitalads.org.

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