Oral

This session will report methods and insights from multi-site qualitative research into ways that food and beverage marketing practices are perceived by African American adult and youth consumers. We will examine how monetary cost and other price-related values influence family-oriented and personal food purchases. We will highlight consumer views of various marketing strategies. Discussion will focus on implications for initiatives to achieve a more healthful mix of food and beverage availability and promotion in African American communities. These issues are highly relevant to the potential for addressing obesity and other nutrition related health disparities affecting African Americans and other ethnic minority populations. Food marketing, which includes pricing and promotion, to African American adults, youth, and communities at-large is skewed toward high calorie-low nutrition foods and beverages compared to more healthful alternatives. This may contribute to disparities in obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases. For example, African American women and girls have much higher prevalence of obesity than their counterparts in the white population. The increasing numbers of public health initiatives that seek to curb marketing of high-calorie, low-nutrition foods via policy changes have the potential to reduce these disparities. However, as part of studying the potential impact of policy reforms, consumer perceptions of these policies must be assessed. If new policies are not accepted by the community, their impact is diminished. This is particularly important for African Americans and other high risk ethnic groups as well as high risk socioeconomic groups. This research from the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network highlights a continuum of perspectives from the African American community which contribute to the overall understanding of responses to food marketing and suggest potential areas for facilitating beneficial social changes.

Session Objectives: 1. Identify the perceptions of food marketing environments, including, price, promotion, availability, and food products, in African American adults and children and the potential implications of these perceptions for policy development. 2. Describe the utility of sensitizing focus group participants to ethnically-targeted marketing strategies as a method to motivate social change. 3. Assess possible regional or socioeconomic status differences in food marketing perspectives of African Americans.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)