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Use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in South Africa

In South Africa (SA), exclusive breast feeding remains rare, with breast-milk substitutes (BMS) commonly being used in ways that are detrimental to infant and young child nutrition, health and survival. The use of internet, digital and mobile platforms has increased, including in low-income and midd...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pereira-Kotze, Catherine, Doherty, Tanya, Swart, Elizabeth C
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716659/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33272942
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003574
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author Pereira-Kotze, Catherine
Doherty, Tanya
Swart, Elizabeth C
author_facet Pereira-Kotze, Catherine
Doherty, Tanya
Swart, Elizabeth C
author_sort Pereira-Kotze, Catherine
collection PubMed
description In South Africa (SA), exclusive breast feeding remains rare, with breast-milk substitutes (BMS) commonly being used in ways that are detrimental to infant and young child nutrition, health and survival. The use of internet, digital and mobile platforms has increased, including in low-income and middle-income countries, like SA and these platforms are avenues for BMS marketing. SA has national legislation (Regulation R991) to enforce the International Code of Marketing of BMS. This paper aims to provide pertinent examples of how BMS manufacturers in SA use social media to market their products thus violating national regulations. A digital (and social media) ethnography approach was used to study BMS organisations’ activity on Facebook and Instagram. Purposively selected examples of social media posts observed (from 2015 to 2019) were included, and content analysed in terms of national legislation. Several examples of BMS social media marketing are presented and interpreted according to provisions of national regulations that they violate. BMS manufacturers have found ways on social media to market their products in a media space that is complex to regulate, and where it is difficult to enforce national regulations. It is necessary to engage with stakeholders, notably social media companies, to alert them to relevant regulations applicable to their platforms. Monitoring the marketing of products for infants and young children by national governments needs to include online and digital platforms especially social media.
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spelling pubmed-77166592020-12-11 Use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in South Africa Pereira-Kotze, Catherine Doherty, Tanya Swart, Elizabeth C BMJ Glob Health Analysis In South Africa (SA), exclusive breast feeding remains rare, with breast-milk substitutes (BMS) commonly being used in ways that are detrimental to infant and young child nutrition, health and survival. The use of internet, digital and mobile platforms has increased, including in low-income and middle-income countries, like SA and these platforms are avenues for BMS marketing. SA has national legislation (Regulation R991) to enforce the International Code of Marketing of BMS. This paper aims to provide pertinent examples of how BMS manufacturers in SA use social media to market their products thus violating national regulations. A digital (and social media) ethnography approach was used to study BMS organisations’ activity on Facebook and Instagram. Purposively selected examples of social media posts observed (from 2015 to 2019) were included, and content analysed in terms of national legislation. Several examples of BMS social media marketing are presented and interpreted according to provisions of national regulations that they violate. BMS manufacturers have found ways on social media to market their products in a media space that is complex to regulate, and where it is difficult to enforce national regulations. It is necessary to engage with stakeholders, notably social media companies, to alert them to relevant regulations applicable to their platforms. Monitoring the marketing of products for infants and young children by national governments needs to include online and digital platforms especially social media. BMJ Publishing Group 2020-12-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7716659/ /pubmed/33272942 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003574 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Analysis
Pereira-Kotze, Catherine
Doherty, Tanya
Swart, Elizabeth C
Use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in South Africa
title Use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in South Africa
title_full Use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in South Africa
title_fullStr Use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in South Africa
title_short Use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in South Africa
title_sort use of social media platforms by manufacturers to market breast-milk substitutes in south africa
topic Analysis
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716659/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33272942
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003574
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