Tobacco companies transferred colors, flavors and marketing techniques – previously used to entice children as future smokers – to the sugar-sweetened beverages space, when they bought food and drink companies in 1963, according to a BMJ report. Led by researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the study draws from a cache of “secret documents” from the tobacco industry and marketing campaigns of drink brands by two the biggest tobacco companies: R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris.

“The tobacco and food industry are more intertwined than I originally had thought,” first author Kim Nguyen, ScD, MPH, who is also with the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

Pointing to the study’s findings, Nguyen says that “industry is unable to police itself. Voluntary industry self-regulation does not work. We need stronger governmental regulations on child-targeted marketing of sugary drinks.”

“Executives in the two largest US-based tobacco companies had developed colors and flavors as additives for cigarettes and used them to build major children’s beverage product lines, including Hawaiian Punch, Kool-Aid, Tang and Capri Sun,” says senior author Dr. Laura Schmidt, of the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. 

“Even after the tobacco companies sold these brands to food and beverage corporations, many of the marketing strategies designed to attract children are still in use today,” she claims. 

“I’m surprised to learn how many well-known food and drink brands were owned by tobacco companies, including Oreo, Fruity Pebbles cereal and Jell-O,” Nguyen notes.

Tobacco companies transferred flavor and color technology to make and market sugary drinks for children, says Nguyen. “We are watching them use the same flavor technology on e-cigarettes to entice young users.”

The study comes at a time when soda and sugary drink consumption, as well as junk food marketing, is under the spotlight. Last week, the UK Advertising Association published a report setting out the advertising industry’s viewpoint on the challenge of childhood obesity. Although that the report found that children’s exposure to products that are high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) through advertising has dramatically reduced in recent years, there is still widespread concern regarding the advertising and marketing of unhealthy foods to children. 

“Public health advocates and consumers should put pressure on food corporations to not market unhealthy food and drinks to young children and similarly, to urge legislators to regulate advertising and marketing to children,” Nguyen stresses.

Fruit juice, sports drinks linked to obesity, metabolic disease
US youngsters consume an average of 143 calories a day in sugary beverages, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Calorie-dense drinks do not provide the satiety of real foods and are associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes.

Sugary beverages include most fruit juices, sports and energy drinks, soda and other beverages sweetened with added sugars, such as honey, fructose, glucose, sucrose, sweeteners and sugar.

The new papers, which are available in the UCSF Truth Tobacco Industry documents Library, a subset of the UCSF Industry documents Library, reveal connections between the tobacco and food industries, notes the study.

Tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds led the transition to sweetened beverages in 1963 when it purchased Hawaiian Punch from Pacific Hawaiian Products Company. The beverage had previously been promoted to adults as a cocktail mixer but R.J. Reynolds sought to beef up the drink’s “Punchy” mascot – a counterpart to the “Joe Camel” cartoon character the company used to promote cigarettes – and featured it on toys, schoolbook covers, comics, tumblers, clothing and TV commercials. Punchy became the “best salesman the beverage ever had,” according to tobacco industry documents.

“The proposal written by R.J. Reynolds to use flavor and aroma technology developed for tobacco to make food and drink products was particularly insightful because it revealed their intent to expand into the food business,” Nguyen explains.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the company conducted taste tests with children and mothers to evaluate sweetness, colors and flavors for Hawaiian Punch product line extensions. The childrens preferences were prioritized, the authors noted.

By 1983, R.J. Reynolds introduced the nation’s first juice box, marketed as a “handy little carton, that comes with its very own straw.” This innovation was mostly responsible for a 34 percent jump in sales, according to industry documents.

Kool-Aid and Marlboro
Furthermore, Philip Morris acquired Kool-Aid, via General Foods, in 1985. The company flipped its marketing audience from families to children, created its “Kool-Aid Man” mascot, and launched collaborations with branded toys, including Barbie and Hot Wheels. It also developed a children’s Kool-Aid loyalty program described as “our version of the Marlboro Country Store,” a cigarette incentives program.

“The Wacky Wild Kool-Aid style campaign had tremendous reach and impact,” says Nguyen. “Lots of children in the ‘80s dreamed of getting swag from the Wacky Warehouse. What is really ‘wacky’ is that the Kool-Aid kid program was modeled after a tobacco marketing strategy designed to build allegiance with smokers.”

By 2004, Philip Morris had developed at least 36 child-tested flavors to its Kool-Aid line, of which some – like “Great Bluedini” – integrated colors with cartoon characters. The tobacco giant also acquired Capri Sun and Tang and used similar child-focused integrated marketing strategies to drive those sales.

Most sweetened beverage manufacturers claim to limit the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children. The industry has also launched both the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, to promote responsible advertising to children through industry self-policing and the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, which states that it devotes 100 percent of “child-directed advertising to better-for-you foods.”

“The industry claims that these tobacco-inspired marketing strategies are not targeting children and should be excluded from these industry-led agreements,” notes Schmidt. “But the evidence cited in our research proves clearly that these product lines and marketing techniques were designed for and tested on children.”

The authors conclude that, given the current high rates of childhood obesity, there is a clear need to replac current industry-led voluntary standards with well-enforced government regulations on marketing sugary beverages to children.

“Parents do play a significant role in what their children eat and drink,” Nguyen says. “However, we cannot underestimate the influence of these corporations and their marketing. They intentionally develop marketing campaigns that appeal to children by making the drinks fun and exciting,” she concludes.

Both R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris declined to comment on the study.