Corporate social irresponsibility and harmful product promotion

The consumption of harmful products drives the global non communicable disease (NCD) epidemic. Despite increasing awareness and regulation, socially irresponsible industry practitioners continue to employ sophisticated tactics to promote and increase the consumption of harmful products. A retail audit was used to investigate these tactics and capture point of sale pricing and pack information for a range of products sold by Australia’s largest supermarket retailer. Pilot study findings show that substantial volume based discounting is being extensively used to stimulate larger purchases. The size of the volume based discounts is significantly greater for harmful products compared to other product categories, indicating a pricing strategy specifically aimed at increasing consumption behaviour. Furthermore, communications on the packaging of harmful products are used to undermine health risk perceptions and overcome this key motivational barrier to consumption. Recommendations for future research and implications for regulation are discussed.