National Trends in Social Media Food Marketing Expenditures: 2020–2021

Introduction: This study leverages advertising industry data to quantify social media advertising expenditures and advertising impressions of the food and beverage industry on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram from January 2019 to August 2021. Methods: =18 months). Primary outcomes were monthly trends expenditures of food/beverage advertising and the number of views and expenditures of food/beverage advertising by platform (e.g., TV, online, mobile, print). Primary outcomes was measured by monthly expenditures by (1) social media company, (2) brand, and (3) before COVID-19 versus the first year of the pandemic. Results: for interaction<0.001). Conclusions: These data reveal that the food/beverage industry spends at least $2.8 billion on social media advertising, which generate billions of views for their products online. Determining adults' exposure to social media food advertising is critical for understanding the upstream factors that shape the risk for diet-related diseases.