Examining the Relationship between Youth-Targeted Food Marketing Expenditures and the Demographics of Social Media Followers.

Unlabelled: Background: To determine how many adolescents follow food/beverage brands on Instagram and Twitter, and examine associations between brands' youth-targeted marketing practices and percentages of adolescent followers.

Methods: We purchased data from Demographics Pro to characterize the demographics of Twitter and Instagram users who followed 27 of the most highly advertised fast food, snack, and drink brands in 2019. We used one-sample -tests to compare percentages of adolescent followers of the selected brands' accounts versus all social media accounts, independent samples -tests to compare followers of sugary versus low-calorie drink brands, and linear regression to examine associations between youth-targeted marketing practices and the percentages of adolescent followers.