How TikTok Influencers Disclose Food and Beverage Brand Partnerships: Descriptive Study

Introduction

Food and beverage companies spend billions of dollars annually on advertisements to promote their products [Institute of Medicine. Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? Washington, DC. National Academies Press; 2006. 1]. Food marketing (including beverages) is an important influence on the health and diets of children and adolescents. Advertisements affect brand preferences and eating behaviors [Boyland E, McGale L, Maden M, Hounsome J, Boland A, Angus K, et al. Association of food and nonalcoholic beverage marketing with children and adolescents' eating behaviors and health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr. Jul 01, 2022;176(7):e221037. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]2]. Experimental evidence shows that children and adolescents consume significantly more calories when viewing television advertisements featuring unhealthy foods compared to nonfood products [Halford JC, Boyland EJ, Hughes GM, Stacey L, McKean S, Dovey TM. Beyond-brand effect of television food advertisements on food choice in children: the effects of weight status. Public Health Nutr. Sep 2008;11(9):897-904. [CrossRef] [Medline]3-Harris JL, Bargh JA, Brownell KD. Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behavior. Health Psychol. Jul 2009;28(4):404-413. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]5]. In 2006, the Institute of Medicine recognized food marketing toward children as “out of balance” with healthy eating, putting children and adolescents’ health at risk [Institute of Medicine. Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? Washington, DC. National Academies Press; 2006. 1].

Most food advertisement studies have focused on television [Institute of Medicine. Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? Washington, DC. National Academies Press; 2006. 1,Halford JC, Boyland EJ, Hughes GM, Stacey L, McKean S, Dovey TM. Beyond-brand effect of television food advertisements on food choice in children: the effects of weight status. Public Health Nutr. Sep 2008;11(9):897-904. [CrossRef] [Medline]3-Cairns G, Angus K, Hastings G, Caraher M. Systematic reviews of the evidence on the nature, extent and effects of food marketing to children. A retrospective summary. Appetite. Mar 2013;62:209-215. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]6], but adolescents are shifting toward digital entertainment and social media [Rideout V. The common sense census: media use by tweens and teens. 2015. URL: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/census_researchreport.pdf [accessed 2025-02-14] 7]. Half (51%) of adolescents in the US spend an average of 4.8 hours daily on social media [Rothwell J. Teens spend average of 4.8 hours on social media per day. Gallup. URL: https://news.gallup.com/poll/512576/teens-spend-average-hours-social-media-per-day.aspx [accessed 2024-10-18] 8]. One popular social media platform among adolescents is the short video–sharing app TikTok. The social media company’s internal documents indicate that, in 2020, one-third of their 49 million US daily users were younger than 14 years [Zhong R, Frenkel S. A third of TikTok’s U.S. users may be 14 or under, raising safety questions. New York Times. Aug 14, 2020. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/technology/tiktok-underage-users-ftc.html [accessed 2025-02-14] 9]. Since then, the app’s popularity has grown exponentially, with 150 million users in the United States, excluding children under the age of 13 years [Celebrating our thriving community of 150 million Americans. TikTok. URL: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/150-m-us-users [accessed 2025-02-14] 10]. TikTok’s growing popularity makes it poised to overtake YouTube as the most-used app among adolescents [Newton C. TikTok is having a monster 2020. The Verge. Jun 10, 2020. URL: https:/​/www.​theverge.com/​interface/​2020/​6/​10/​21285309/​tiktok-2020-user-numbers-revenue-smash-hit-mea-culpa [accessed 2022-01-21] 11], but to date there is little research on the effect of food advertisements on this platform [Brooks R, Christidis R, Carah N, Kelly B, Martino F, Backholer K. Turning users into 'unofficial brand ambassadors': marketing of unhealthy food and non-alcoholic beverages on TikTok. BMJ Glob Health. Jun 2022;7(6):e009112. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]12-De Veirman M, Hudders L, Nelson MR. What is influencer marketing and how does it target children? A review and direction for future research. Front Psychol. 2019;10:2685. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]14].

Following this shift in media consumption by adolescents, food and beverage companies are increasingly focusing on social media marketing [Raffoul A, Ward ZJ, Santoso M, Kavanaugh JR, Austin SB. Social media platforms generate billions of dollars in revenue from U.S. youth: findings from a simulated revenue model. PLoS One. 2023;18(12):e0295337. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]15]. A study in Australia found that adolescents were exposed to roughly 17 food advertisements for every hour they spent on the internet or on social media and video-sharing apps on their phones [Kelly B, Bosward R, Freeman B. Australian children's exposure to, and engagement with, web-based marketing of food and drink brands: cross-sectional observational study. J Med Internet Res. Jul 12, 2021;23(7):e28144. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]16]. One food company advertising strategy is to pay “influencers,” who are “regular, everyday people” who become online celebrities with large followings, with posts that generate billions of views, to promote products either discreetly or overtly on their social media accounts [De Veirman M, Hudders L, Nelson MR. What is influencer marketing and how does it target children? A review and direction for future research. Front Psychol. 2019;10:2685. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]14,Arnold A. Why YouTube stars influence millennials more than traditional celebrities. Forbes. Jun 20, 2017. URL: https:/​/www.​forbes.com/​sites/​under30network/​2017/​06/​20/​why-youtube-stars-influence-millennials-more-than-traditional-celebrities/​ [accessed 2024-12-18] 17]. Adolescents are especially susceptible to social media advertisements from influencers [Radesky J, Chassiakos YR, Ameenuddin N, Navsaria D, Council on Communication and Media. Digital advertising to children. Pediatrics. Jul 2020;146(1):e20201681. [CrossRef] [Medline]18] because they are likely to evade adolescents’ media literacy skills. The processing of commercialized media content model [Buijzen M, Van RE, Owen L. Introducing the PCMC model: an investigative framework for young people’s processing of commercialized media content. Commun Theory. 2010;20(4):427-450. [CrossRef]19] purports that when children recognize what they are seeing as a commercial, they are able to use their defenses (eg, skepticism, recognition of persuasive intent) to reduce an advertisement’s influence. But influencers blur the boundary between entertainment and marketing, which may reduce adolescents’ ability to recognize and defend against the persuasive intent associated with their messaging. Because social media influencers are seen as regular, everyday people, their product endorsements may be experienced as credible recommendations rather than commercial advertisements [Schouten AP, Janssen L, Verspaget M. Celebrity vs. influencer endorsements in advertising: the role of identification, credibility, and product-endorser fit. Int J Advert. Jul 02, 2019;39(2):258-281. [CrossRef]20].

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the government agency that regulates marketing on social media platforms in the United States, requires influencers to disclose sponsored posts, but these disclosures may not operate as intended. The FTC permits very subtle disclosures, such as adding the words “#ad” or “#sponsored” at the bottom of posts [Disclosures 101 for social media influencers. Federal Trade Commission. Nov 2019. URL: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7312/schw92626-015/html [accessed 2025-02-14] 21], so viewers may not even notice them among the other text surrounding the image.

Little is known about how TikTok influencers disclose food brand partnerships. Our goal in this study was to quantify how often TikTok influencers promote products from food brands and document the range of ways they disclose brand relationships in their content.

Methods

Data Collection

We collected up to 100 videos posted on or before July 1, 2022, from each of the top 100 influencers on TikTok in the United States. Each video was collected by capturing the full video and captions on a research assistant’s phone. Research assistants noted the date the video was posted and the numbers of views, likes, comments, and “saves” or bookmarks. They also collected profile information, such as whether the influencer was “verified” with a blue checkmark and the total number of likes and followers.

Ethical Considerations

This study was determined to be non–human subjects research and used preexisting data that included publicly available information and therefore does not require institutional review board review per Federal Regulations for the Protection of Human Research Subjects (45 CFR 46.104(d)(4)) [Code of Federal Regulations: 46.104 Exempt Research. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Jun 19, 2018. URL: https:/​/www.​hhs.gov/​ohrp/​regulations-and-policy/​regulations/​45-cfr-46/​common-rule-subpart-d/​index.​html#46.​40422]. TikTok allows users to select whether their accounts are public or private. All collected data (ie, videos) were publicly available to anyone on TikTok. No user (ie, follower) data were collected. Only deidentified and aggregated data are presented.

Content Analysis

Using a 3-step approach, we first identified whether a food product was featured. Second, we identified the main product, based on whether it was (1) the only featured food product; (2) a sponsored product; or (3) the most prominent or dominant product (eg, the first to appear or to grab the viewer’s eye). For each main product, the research team then noted whether it was branded (eg, Coke bottle vs banana). Third, a team of research assistants viewed each food product video to capture information about how the product was featured (ie, in the video, caption, or audio) and, for any branded product, where the brand or logo was featured and whether the video was accompanied by any brand disclosures.

Statistical Analysis

Using ReCal3 [Freelon D. ReCal: intercoder reliability calculation as a web service. Int J Internet Sci. 2010;5(1):20-33. [CrossRef]23], we calculated interrater reliability among coders in the third step using a small sample of “practice” videos (n=6) that reflected the range of disclosures used [Lombard M, Snyder-Duch J, Bracken CC. Content analysis in mass communication: assessment and reporting of intercoder reliability. Human Comm Res. Oct 2002;28(4):587-604. [CrossRef]24]. Average pairwise percentage agreement was 92%, and average pairwise Cohen κ was 0.82. We deemed these to be acceptable given the descriptive and exploratory nature of this work. We report descriptive statistics.

Results

From the initial potential pool of 10,000 videos across 100 influencers, we had a final analytical sample of 8871 videos from 97 influencers (

Multimedia Appendix 1

Data collection and cleaning flow chart.

Table 1

Nearly half (n=648, 47.6%) of the videos with food products featured a branded product. Product brands or logos were most often featured in the video itself (n=606, 93.5%), followed by the video caption (n=224, 34.6%), and/or the accompanying audio (n=126, 19.4%).

Most videos featuring a branded food or beverage product did not contain a brand relationship disclosure (n=449, 69.3%). Among videos that disclosed a brand relationship, influencers used 10 different types of disclosures (Table 2). Tagging a brand in the video’s captions was the most common disclosure method (n=182, 28.1%). Six different types of caption hashtags were used to disclose brand relationships, including #[brandname] (n=63, 9.7%) and #ad (n=30, 4.6%).

Discussion

Principal Results

Nearly half of the TikTok posts by top influencers that included food and beverage products featured a branded product. The majority (69.3%) of these posts, however, did not include any brand relationship disclosures, suggesting either that no relationship existed or that they purposely or accidentally omitted its disclosure. By comparison, a recent study of food-related Instagram posts by celebrities (athletes, actors, and musicians) found that less than 5% of the identified posts that were sponsored by a food company were identified by hashtags (eg, “#ad”) or related terms (eg, “paid advertisement”) below the post [Turnwald BP, Anderson KG, Markus HR, Crum AJ. Nutritional analysis of foods and beverages posted in social media accounts of highly followed celebrities. JAMA Netw Open. Jan 04, 2022;5(1):e2143087. [FREE Full text] [CrossRef] [Medline]25].

Among the food videos with disclosures we identified, the most frequently used mechanism—tagging the brand—did not clearly differentiate between sponsored content and the influencer trying to attract a brand or followers who may like that brand. These findings have implications for how social media marketing should be regulated. The ambiguity around brand relationship disclosures makes it difficult for social media users, particularly adolescents, to make informed decisions about the products they see [Radesky J, Chassiakos YR, Ameenuddin N, Navsaria D, Council on Communication and Media. Digital advertising to children. Pediatrics. Jul 2020;146(1):e20201681. [CrossRef] [Medline]18]. This concern has been recognized by the FTC in the most recent iteration (July 2023) of its endorsement guides [16 CFR Part 255 -- guides concerning use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. Federal Trade Commission. 2023. URL: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/part-255 [accessed 2024-02-27] 26], which emphasize that marketing practices geared toward adults may not be appropriate for children. In fact, bigger and clearer disclosures would likely work better among children and adolescents. A qualitative study among participants aged 12-16 years reported that they did not mind if influencers were paid, but they did not like seeing explicit disclosures that were “...too pushy, like, this is advertising, because then you will keep this in mind all the time” [Van Dam S, Van Reijmersdal E. Insights in adolescents’ advertising literacy, perceptions and responses regarding sponsored influencer videos and disclosures. Cyberpsychology. May 23, 2019;13(2):2. [CrossRef]27].

Limitations

Given the dearth of information on influencer marketing, our study set out to systematically collect and record information on how social media influencers disclose relationships with food brands. However, our study has limitations, including (1) the use of a convenience sample of influencers and posts, (2) the focus on only the most prominent food product in each video, (3) the inability to infer intentionality in whether a product was meant to be featured in a video (eg, when the only food product featured was in the background), and (4) the inability to distinguish whether the presence or lack of a disclosure implied the presence or lack of a brand relationship.

Conclusions

Social media users, particularly adolescents, need clearer, more robust disclosures from influencers to protect against the undue influence of food marketing. These findings may inform calls for the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative—the largest self-regulatory pledge designed to reduce unhealthy food marketing—to extend its protections to older adolescents, who are heavily targeted by food companies [Harris J, Heard A, Schwartz M. Older but still vulnerable: all children need protection from unhealthy food marketing. Yale Rudd Center. URL: https:/​/media.​ruddcenter.uconn.edu/​wp-content/​uploads/​sites/​2909/​2024/​06/​Protecting_Older_Children_3_14.​pdf [accessed 2025-02-14] 28,Recommendations for responsible food marketing to children. Healthy Eating Research. 2015. URL: https:/​/healthyeatingresearch.​org/​research/​recommendations-for-responsible-food-marketing-to-children/​ [accessed 2025-02-14] 29].