Overall, food marketing was prevalent among our sample of Canadian schools with most Principals (84%) reporting the presence of one or more types of food marketing within their school. Two-thirds of participating schools reported selling branded food items, particularly pizza, chocolate, and other fast food, for fundraising purposes. A quarter of schools reported food advertisements on school property, which were most often found on vending machines, and about 1 in 6 schools reported participating in rewards programs, having exclusive marketing arrangements with food companies or receiving financial contributions in return for publicity.
Our findings suggest that while present, school-based food marketing seems less pervasive in Canada compared to the United States. In US schools, exclusive marketing agreements, reward and incentive programs, and the distribution of free items such as coupons have been found to be particularly widespread [17, 19, 33]. For instance, national surveys have found that 63% of high school students in the United States attend schools with exclusive marketing agreements [33] and 64% of primary school students attend schools where food coupons are distributed as incentives [17]. Advertising, especially on posters and signs, vending machines, food and beverage display cases, and in school media (e.g., yearbooks), has also been found to be pervasive in some US school districts [34, 35]. These types of food marketing were reported considerably less frequently in our sample.
Our results also differed from the few Canadian studies that have documented school-based food marketing. For instance, Velazquez et al. [20] documented food promotions and advertisements in 100% of secondary schools and 80% of primary schools surveyed in Vancouver while only 25% of schools overall reported such advertising in our study. This difference may in part be attributable to the fact that advertisements were self-reported in our study whereas the promotions in Vancouver schools were identified through direct observation. Thus, it is conceivable that the frequency of food advertising on school property reported in our study is underestimated.
The prevalence of exclusive marketing agreements with food companies was also lower in our study (16%) compared to what has been previously reported in Canada. A national survey on commercialism in Canadian schools conducted in 2004–05 found that 27% of schools had an exclusive marketing arrangement with two large beverage companies [14]. This may suggest a decline in exclusive marketing agreements within schools. Such a decline could be explained by the introduction of policies restricting the sale of certain unhealthy food items, such as regular soft drinks, in many Canadian provinces [23,24,25].
Differences in the types of food marketing present in primary and secondary schools were also noted. For instance, participation in reward or incentive programs was almost solely reported by primary schools, whereas exclusive marketing agreements and food product displays were more prevalent in secondary schools. These results are consistent with studies conducted in Canada, where marketing has been found to differ by school type [14, 20]. For example, Velazquez et al. [20] found that food promotions were more prevalent overall in secondary schools than primary schools. And, in the national survey on school-based commercialism, the frequency of exclusive marketing agreements was higher in secondary schools (60%) compared to primary schools (10%) [14]. Similarly, in the United States, vending of branded food and beverages and exclusive marketing agreements have been found to be more common in secondary than primary schools [17]. As Terry McElrath et al. [17] suggest, these different marketing approaches are likely tailored to the way younger children and adolescents exercise their purchasing power. For instance, incentive/reward programs may be more common in primary schools because they incentivise purchases made by parents, while exclusive marketing agreements and food displays (indicative of more food vending) are more frequent in secondary schools because adolescents have access to more money and can make direct purchases independently.
Contrary to what has been reported in the Unites States [17, 18] and New Zealand [21], our study found few differences in the types of food marketing reported based on the socio-economic status of the student body. According to our only significant finding, schools where the majority of students were of lower socio-economic status were more likely to report the distribution of free branded items than schools where most students were of higher socio-economic status. It is possible that schools located in poorer neighbourhoods distribute more branded foods through their school nutrition/breakfast programs. Despite asking respondents what type of free items were distributed in their school, the quality of our data did not allow us to explore this question further. The dependence of school nutrition programs on the donation of branded foods and their healthfulness merits further investigation and may have implications regarding policy implementation in schools and buy-in from stakeholders.
Although this study did not expressly examine the nutritional quality of foods marketed in schools, our results, consistent with other studies [19, 36, 37], suggest that unhealthy products are being promoted by way of fundraising. For instance, 95% of schools selling branded food items to raise funds reported selling either chocolate, pizza, and/or other fast-food items. The sale of unhealthy branded food highlights the inadequacy of current provincial legislation that exempt fundraising from their school nutrition policies (as is the case in Ontario) [24]. Consistent with other studies [38, 39], it also highlights the lack of enforcement of these policies. For example, 44% of Principals from British Columbia reported that chocolate was sold for fundraising, despite it being prohibited by the province’s guidelines on the sale of food and beverages in schools [23]. This result also shows the limits of the CAI as participating companies choose to exclude fundraising in their definition of “advertising to children”.
The sale of unhealthy foods within schools raises health concerns because it promotes unhealthy dietary behaviors among Canadian children and youth whose diets often exceed the daily recommended intake for sodium and sugar and are inadequate in fruit and vegetables [40,41,42]. Furthermore, the promotion of foods inconsistent with the tenets of healthy eating taught in schools creates contradictory messages and conflicts with schools’ mission to educate and promote student well-being [43]. That said, even if a branded food item (e.g., pizza from a large chain restaurant) is compliant with school nutrition standards, it is debatable as to whether the sale of this item should be permitted, particularly if children are exposed to a brand that is largely associated with unhealthy products, as is the case for most fast-food and dine-in restaurants in Canada [44, 45]. The potential for such contradictory messages should be considered when crafting food marketing restrictions in schools.
Although most Principals (> 75%) agreed with statements acknowledging the detrimental effect of food marketing on children’s dietary behaviors and health, it is worth noting that nearly half of all Principals sampled either agreed or expressed a neutral position with a statement affirming that the exposure of children to food marketing is an acceptable trade-off for funds or resources that may otherwise not be available. The need for resources may indeed be a key factor driving school-based food marketing and may be breeding ambivalence among administrators regarding the issue. Addressing budget shortfalls and supporting schools to find alternative funding sources will likely be required to gain the support needed to adopt and implement more comprehensive measures restricting food marketing within schools. In fact, economic constraints including the cost of policy-compliant (i.e., healthy) foods, lack of infrastructure (e.g., kitchen) and human resources, coupled with the reliance on food sales to ensure the viability of school cafeterias have all been cited as impediments to the implementation of school nutrition policies in Canada [46,47,48,49].
The presence of food marketing in most schools participating in this study also highlights the failure of self-regulation in protecting Canadian children and adolescents from such marketing. Although we did not examine the compliance/behavior of specific companies participating in the CAI, it is evident that this voluntary commitment does not restrict the full breadth of food and beverage marketing activities such as fundraising, reward/incentive programs, and financial contributions in exchange for publicity that is happening in primary schools in which this commitment applies. The CAI also fails to protect adolescents aged 12 and over attending secondary school who seem particularly exposed to the vending of branded food products and advertisements on school property, among other forms of marketing. In addition to its limited scope, the voluntary nature of this initiative also means that it does not apply to several companies or industry associations such as fast food restaurant chains selling pizza or sandwiches and national or provincial dairy associations among others, that have been identified as carrying out marketing (mostly fundraising) in our sample of schools.
Despite documenting whether schools had a policy pertaining to food marketing, Principals were not asked to provide details about these policies. As a result, this study could not investigate whether the presence of these policies was effective in restricting the food marketing activities to which they applied. Regardless, given the presence of food marketing in most schools, our results suggest that the current patchwork of policies has not been effective at protecting children from food marketing in schools. Given these inadequacies, legislation in this area is clearly needed in Canada. In fact, the House of Commons is expected to pass a bill restricting the marketing of unhealthy foods to children under 13 years in 2019 [50].
Strengths and limitations
This is the first study to examine the full breadth of food marketing in schools across three Canadian provinces. Our findings however are not representative of all schools in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Ontario, given the low response rate. As the occurrence of marketing was self-reported, our results are also susceptible to reporting errors and the extent of food marketing may be underestimated. As such, no inferences can be drawn from comparisons made between the results of this study and that of national studies in the United States or other research in Canada. Furthermore, desirability bias may have influenced the expression of Principals’ views regarding food marketing. This study also excluded digital food advertising that appears on websites used in schools by students. For example, a recent study found that coolmathgames.com, a popular website used in schools, featured more than 5 million food advertisements over a one-year period, most of which promoted unhealthy processed foods that were high in either sugar, fat and/or sodium [51]. In addition, the small sample of schools included here did not permit school type or socio-economic status sub-analyses by provinces which constitute different policy environments. Notwithstanding these limitations, this study provided valuable insights regarding the effectiveness of current policies on restricting food marketing in schools which to date has been seldom studied in Canada. This study also provided baseline data on school-based food marketing and did so by examining an exhaustive list of marketing activities and sampling schools from multiple provinces.