On, July 24, 2017, the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute held the first training session of its Countermarketing Staff Training Program (CSTP). The CSTP was developed to train staff at youth-serving organizations in New York City to launch food countermarketing initiatives that engage youth. Food countermarketing describes activities that decrease the consumption of unhealthy food and beverages. Food countermarketing activities go against or oppose the marketing of unhealthy products. Nineteen NYC based youth-serving organizations, and one youth-serving organization based in Beacon, NY were represented at the training.

During “Food Countermarketing 101” participants:

  • Reviewed marketing strategies of Big Food companies
  • Discussed the effects of unhealthy food marketing on the health of youth
  • Defined and discussed food countermarketing
  • Explored youth food countermarketing initiatives
  • Engaged in a countermarketing messaging development session

In Case You Missed It

Due to overwhelming demand we’ll be holding another “Countermarketing 101” session later this year.

You can also watch training here:

Get involved

We welcome organizations and individuals that are interested in launching food countermarketing initiatives that engage youth to attend the second-run of the CSTP training and to join our NYC Youth Food Countermarketing Network. To be updated about the next round of the CSTP and to join the countermarketing network, please contact Charita Johnson at Charita.Johnson@sph.cuny.edu.

Support for this project is provided through a grant from the Levitt Foundation.

Additional Readings

Download the Youth Food Educators Toolkit.

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New Publication: Countermarketing Alcohol and Unhealthy Food: An Effective Strategy for Preventing Noncommunicable Diseases?


Building on the Institute’s work in youth countermarketing of unhealthy food, several Institute faculty and students, with Lori Dorfman at the Berkeley Media Studies Group have recently published an article in the 2017 Annual Review of Public Health on lessons from effective tobacco countermarketing for efforts to combat unhealthy food and alcohol marketing to prevent noncommunicable disease.



Youth Countermarketing Convening

 


Youth Countermarketing Convening


On October 27, 2016, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute held its first Youth Countermarketing Convening which brought together organizations, groups, and individuals across NYC that lead youth food justice programs and/or that are interested in creating or expanding youth food countermarketing work. Organizations represented at the meeting include: Children’s Aid Society, FoodCorps, Community Food Advocates, GrowNYC, City Harvest, Bronx Health Reach, New Settlement, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.



Policy Brief: Countermarketing Unhealthy Food: Lessons from Tobacco

 


Policy Brief: Countermarketing Unhealthy Food: Lessons from Tobacco


Nicholas Freudenberg, Chris Palmedo, Eleni Murphy and Sarah Garza for the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute

In the next decade, experts predict that diet-related diseases may overtake tobacco as the leading cause of premature death and preventable illness in New York City and around the world. Many factors have contributed to the rise of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other diet-related conditions. One reason is relentless marketing of unhealthy food by food and beverage companies. Each year, U.S. food companies spend more than $2 billion targeting children with ads, mostly for highly processed foods high in sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, the products most associated with diet-related diseases. As advocates explore solutions to this impending public health crisis, one strategy that shows promise is countermarketing.