Contextual Factors That May Impact on the Development and Implementation of the Sugary Drinks Policy; Comment on “Understanding Marketing Responses to a Tax on Sugary Drinks: A Qualitative Interview Study in the United Kingdom, 2019”

Document Type : Commentary

Authors

1 Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Alicante, Spain

2 CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain

Abstract

Forde et al proposed an interesting framework to understand marketing response to a tax in sugary drinks based on stakeholder interviews. Sugary drinks regulation can lead to various strategies in the industry’s marketing activity. That is, it can either result in the industry introducing no changes or it can lead to changes, which can conflict or align with public health objectives. The importance of Forde and colleagues’ analysis lies in the potential for governments to anticipate the industry’s reaction to the legislation and the need of drivers to enable both big and small companies to follow the rules. Governments must not forget the importance of other contextual factors that will have an impact both on the development and implementation of this type of policies and on possible responses that could mitigate their impact such as public acceptance, the influence of mass media and corporate activities aimed at influencing policy.

Keywords


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Articles in Press, Corrected Proof
Available Online from 01 February 2023
  • Receive Date: 29 September 2022
  • Revise Date: 26 January 2023
  • Accept Date: 30 January 2023
  • First Publish Date: 01 February 2023