EU Pledge Members: Image Before Children’s Health

Despite the EU Pledge, branded food websites still promote unhealthy foods to children. First, this paper describes the prevalence of online marketing strategies and the nutrient value of marketed foods on 49 Belgian and Dutch child-targeting food websites. Second, pledge criteria are evaluated for pledge and non-pledge members. About 88.5% of the online promoted products were unhealthy, whereas marketing features were still present at every website. The average nutrient scores did not differ significantly between pledge and non- pledge members. Future studies should examine whether children benefit from ad-break warnings and counter-advertisements to counter such online marketing techniques.status: publishe