Study reveals tobacco companies applied cigarette marketing strategies to ultra-processed foods
By
Maria Godoy
The bagel they save for the regulars. Don't skim, savour.
Summary
Research published in the American Journal of Public Health reveals that tobacco companies, after decades of perfecting addictive marketing and flavor engineering for cigarettes, applied the same strategies to ultra-processed foods after acquiring major food firms in the 1980s. Laura Schmidt, a UCSF researcher studying tobacco archives, is among dozens of contributors to this research series that details the connection between Big Tobacco's production, marketing strategies and the modern ultra-processed food industry. The article explores how these historical tactics might inform current efforts to reduce consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledTobacco companies spent decades honing marketing strategies, flavor engineering and processing technologies that helped addict consumers to cigarettes. Then, in the 1980s, they started buying up large food firms and deployed these same strategies to sell more ultra-processed foods.
So says Laura Schmidt, a professor and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who has been studying old tobacco company archives.
She's one of dozens of researchers who contributed to a new series of papers published in the American Journal of Public Health.
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