A Systematic Review on the Impact of Unhealthy Sport Sponsorships

This systematic review examines the impact of unhealthy food sponsorships on sports, particularly focusing on their influence on children. The review analyzes various scholarly articles and newspaper sources to understand the extent to which these sponsorships promote unhealthy eating habits and affect children's perceptions of brands. The study explores the physical, economic, political, and socio-cultural environments influenced by these sponsorships, highlighting the role of companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald's, and the concerns raised by organizations like the Cancer Council. The review also discusses the government's and parents' roles in mitigating the negative impacts of these sponsorships, advocating for restrictions on unhealthy food marketing in sports. The findings underscore the need for ethical sponsorships that prioritize public health over revenue, and provide recommendations for policy changes and parental guidance to protect children from the detrimental effects of unhealthy sport sponsorships.

Running head: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON UNHEALTHY SPORT SPONSORSHIPS
Systematic Review on Unhealthy Sport Sponsorships
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Abstract:
The aim of this systematic review is to identify as well as critically understand the review
methods related to the idea of unhealthy food and sponsorships related to it. The extent of the
impact of the sponsorships on children’s minds is also discussed. Different articles are obtained
from scholarly and newspaper sources in connection to the topic of unhealthy nature of sport
sponsorships. The literature exploring the articles is analysed and the results are also discussed.
The recommendation section discusses what the government should do and what the parents
should do in order to stop the unhealthy sponsorships from impacting the children negatively.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Methods:..........................................................................................................................................3
Inclusion Criteria:........................................................................................................................3
Search Strategy:...........................................................................................................................4
Results:............................................................................................................................................4
Nature of documents:...................................................................................................................4
The physical environment:..........................................................................................................4
The economic environment:........................................................................................................5
The political environment:...........................................................................................................5
The socio-cultural environment:..................................................................................................6
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................8
Strengths and Limitations:.............................................................................................................11
Recommendations:........................................................................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction:
A sport is an integral part of human life and it is extremely healthy and beneficial to
maintain the fitness levels in any individual. It is basically a form of physical exertion and skill
in which individuals or teams compete with one another for fun and also for the purpose of
entertainment. There are several national and international events annually or half-yearly or even
once in four years to encourage sport and give it the necessary importance. In events which are
organised by major clubs or sports organisations, there are numerous businesses which provide
the necessary funding for the sports, be it Olympics or any other specific sporting event.
Sponsorship is actually a situation when a business provides certain funds, resources and even
association to the respective club. The club also provides them with certain rights and
associations in turn which might prove helpful for the business commercially. These might be in
forms of advertisements or logos or any other forms of making known the sports event they are
supporting.
Sponsorships of sport offer companies an avenue to expose the children and young
people to their brand and encourage a connection and identification with a brand. It also enables
children and young people to influence the spending patterns of their parents which in turn has
the potential to foster brand-loyal, life ling customers.
Clubs develop their identities and culture over several years, sometimes for even decades
and are shaped according to the nature of their choices. It is necessary for other sporting codes in
order to reconsider their sponsorship arrangements with the unhealthy products and also seek the
ethical sponsorships in the interest of the public good rather than simply the revenue.

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Methods:
The methods for the systematic review are discussed with regard to the inclusion criteria
as well as the search strategy.
Inclusion Criteria:
The systematic review was concerned with sources which were published currently
between the years 2012 to 2017. Those studies which included the information on the nature of
the unhealthy food and those available in the sports settings were considered for the study.
Though the inclusion criteria were broad, the studies which were related to the benefits of food
and nutrition on the sport performance are excluded.
Search Strategy:
The search conducted for articles and sources for the systematic review included the
scholarly sources. Google scholar was used to find suitable journals, blogs, articles which were
based on the given topic at hand. The relevance and the accuracy of the articles were justified
before referring and drawing information from them. All the fourteen articles are relevant to the
topic and help in throwing light on the topic as well as in reaching a valid conclusion.
Results:
The results related to the survey are discussed and the nature of the documents, the
physical environment, the economic environment, the political environment, the socio-cultural
environment is all discussed in detail as follows:
Nature of documents:
For any topic of systematic review it is desirable that the nature of the documents is
scholarly and relevant to the topic on which the discussion is to be conducted. The documents

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collected are basically scholarly articles, pdfs, journal articles and other newspaper and online
sources as well. The documents are all related to the situation in Australia and pertain to the
situation of the sport sponsorships in Australia. Thus it can be said that the nature of the
documents are genuine and pertain to the requirements of the systematic review.
The physical environment:
The physical environment is an essential determinant of how the unhealthy sponsorships
impact the health of the children. The promotion of the physical activity and the link with such
activities with the sponsorships might impact the minds of the children. Organised forms of sport
offer several chances and ample scope for promotion of physical activity and also health
promotion activities to a vast number of children. In particular it can be said that the restriction
of sponsorships of children’s sport by unhealthy food and beverage companies or even their
promotional activities is an extremely important message of the sporting clubs which need to be
performed in order to reinforce healthy eating messages. It is to be logically understood that no
sort of funding difficulties would occur if there is restriction imposed on unhealthy food and
beverage company sponsorships. This is because this sort of funding represents a very small
proportion of the total income base despite the fact that it provides vast number of opportunities
for the sponsors (11).
The high participation rates in the formal sport and consistent pairing of the
recommendations which link the physical activity and the healthy eating suggest that sports
settings might be ideal locations for encouraging improved amount of nutrition. The studies have
shown that healthy sponsorship funding can create healthier environments in sports clubs (6).

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Although the elite sports people understand the fact that the role diet plays a significant
role in enhancing their performance. The sponsorship relationships between the sporting
organisations and food and beverage brands and companies do not always reinforce either the
sports related or more generalised nutritional recommendations. The sports sponsorships
associate consumption of energy-dense nutrient poor food with high performance sport. The elite
people consume and endorse the foods. It actually consumes energy dense nutrient poor foods
which is consistent with outstanding sporting performance. It clearly challenges as well as
undermines the nutritional advice from the health and dietary professionals (14).
The majority of the sponsorship providing companies produce items which are unhealthy
and not proper for use. The messages shown in the advertisements do not mention anything
about the nutritional advice from health and dietary professionals. A few numbers of studies
have investigated the characteristics and the investigation of sport. The studies have clearly
shown that majority of the companies did not meet the criteria as healthy. Majority of the
sponsors are food companies which promote the consumption of unhealthy food items (13).
The economic environment:
It can be said that unhealthy sponsorship has infiltrated all levels of sport. The main food
sponsors in case of the Olympics are the junk food giants Coca Cola, Cadbury and Mc Donald’s.
The junk food and drink sponsors were those companies which made the unhealthiest products.
Mc Donald’s was most responsible for the connectivity to the majority of sports. The sponsors
provided majority of products welcome packs and even branded uniforms with equipment (13).

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The development programs at the junior level were adult sports’ modified versions and
those were set up to potentially modify the adult sports and also facilitate the participation and
also a lifelong interest in the sports (14).
The rates of childhood obesity are immensely high and the need for any sort of
sponsorship with the junk food businesses is absolutely unnecessary. It is not unknown that
children are influenced by food brands and children have the power to recall the sponsors which
are related to sport. According to the children, the sponsors are connected to the different forms
of sport and they feel that buying a product would help them return a sort of favour to the
sponsors (6).
The political environment:
Political environment and its impact is also very important. The Cancer council is
extremely concerned and rather worried about junk food marketing as it vastly influences the
children’s food preferences. The food they ask their parents to buy is also influenced by it.
Majority of obese children are likely to grow up as obese adults which might expose them to
eleven different forms of cancers. These forms of unhealthy sponsorships are in stark contrast
with the healthy lifestyle which children are asked to maintain by their families or at school. The
Cancer Council desires that the marketing of unhealthy products are regulated and unhealthy
sport sponsors should not be encouraged (7).
The government also has a significant role to play in the withdrawal of sports
sponsorships by ensuring that they be stopped so that they do not continue to negatively
influence the children and cause severe harms to their day to day life. It should also be done to

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lessen their allegiance to any type of junk food which might pave the way for future illnesses of
severe nature which might even cause cancer (14).
According to the Supreme Court the kids lack the capabilities of rational decision making
and therefore leads to the conclusion that they often make wrong choices which might severely
impact their lives and the effects of these might not be possible to be altered. Also the Supreme
Court mentions that any sort of misleading advertising is a cause of propagation of wrong
messages and wrong sorts of ideas and therefore should be banned without any major forms of
thought or discussion. It is obvious for the consumers to pay attention to rational and deliberate
processing of information put forward in the advertisements and finally make decisions related to
purchase based on the information available to them. Both emotional as well as informational
marketing are utilised in order to appeal to the consumers and assist them in their purchase
decisions (12).
The government should however weed out all sorts of negativity concerning food items
so that no health hazards or serious diseases occur as a result of such misleading information
presented in sponsorships on unhealthy food items.
It is necessary for the authorities to stop the most negative sponsorships and ask the
companies to restrict their advertisements so that they do not show anything wrong that might
impact the minds of the children in a negative way.
The socio-cultural environment:
Different types of companies sponsor sports and the activation of sports sponsorship is a
method by which corporate sponsors investments can be leveraged in sports properties. Basically

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in certain situations corporate sponsors form alliances by strategic planning majorly due to the
reason of the marketing of various goods and services. It is crucial to find the correct type of
sponsors for the company in order to understand whether they are suitable enough for the sport
event concerned. Sponsorship is basically a singular aspect of clubs which aims to potentially
influence them and also their participants. Sponsorship also influences brand awareness and the
attitudes so that the sponsorship of the brands might influence the contribution of companies to
unhealthy food habits and food preferences. The nature and extent of food sponsorships on kids
watching the sports is also significant (1).
In light of the several sponsorship programmes it is necessary to understand that there are
certain sponsorships which are of companies whose products are not healthy enough for
consumption especially by children. Therefore it is necessary to limit the exposure of such
sponsorships to children so that they do not impact the minds of the children negatively and do
not cause severe health hazards (9). It is the duty of the sports companies to ensure the
sponsorships do not negatively impact the children and their mindsets towards unhealthy food
consumption. It often happens that children get impacted by their influential campaigns thus
resulting in their unhealthy food consumption. This causes severe issues related to the children’s
health and thus the responsibility of the proper management of the sponsorships needs to be
taken seriously (2).
Children are a major target for all the advertising campaigns as their minds are easy to
influence and they in turn influence their parents and their spending on such unhealthy items. In
many cases children also have their own habits of spending and they have the chances as well as
the potential of becoming brand loyal as well as lifelong customers of the particular brands. It is
obvious that the sponsorship of development programs offer the chance to companies to expose

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their brand products to children and also foster a connection between their brand and its products
with the children. Studies reveal that children aged between five to twelve considered the team
sports to be associated with the messages and their products which were promoted by the
sponsors of the team. It also showed that the sponsorships and branding of sports can influence
the overall product recall value and are responsible for enhancing the attitude of the children
towards the sponsor as well. Children aged ten to fourteen considered the companies which
sponsored their favourite teams and clubs as cool (5).
Discussion:
The situation related to these unhealthy sports sponsorships and the children’s health is
significant in Australia specifically. The proportion of children in Australia who are obese or
even overweight is increasing. This is a cause of huge concern for the people, the parents as well
as for the government. There are several complex causes for this which primarily is the
children’s exposure to high marketing levels of unhealthy food. This also happens in case of
several soft drinks and aerated drinks which the children consume and ask for. There are several
ways in which the children are exposed to unhealthy marketing of food and other sponsorships
(3).
The impact of the sponsorships of sports affects the image of the company more so in
case it is unhealthy. The unhealthy sponsorships impact the organisations specifically those
which are non profit in nature. The stock values are also impacted. The organisations need to
choose the sponsorship programmes and advertisements wisely so that it does not impact their
image (7).

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A significant form of unhealthy food and drink marketing is that of sport sponsorships. It
is being seen that sports sponsorships are being used increasingly in order to market the
unhealthy drinks and food items to the children. Despite the fact that sports sponsorships are
crucial for the development and proper implementation of sports activities the sponsoring by
manufacturers of unhealthy food and drinks might cause harm to the health promoting goals of
sport. These might even undo the health benefits that are gained by the kids in participating in
sport and also help to reinforce the unhealthy eating habits which are difficult to undo and in
severe cases might even last throughout one’s lifetime (4).
The level of unhealthy sport sponsorships is so high that eight out of ten food and
beverage sponsors of the children’s sport developments are considered to be unhealthy.
The Olympics are the most important target for the unhealthy sponsorship of sports. It is
basically due to the reason that more or less everybody watches sports and the exposure of te
companies is maximum (14).
The main argument for sponsorship is the fact that the required amount of funding is
provided by it. It is required to understand that the views of society change over time and the
sports organisations need to understand that their thoughtfulness and decisions are reflected in
the way they organise and run their club. According to the Children’s code for advertising states
that food ads should in no way lower the food and nutrition policies in compliance with the
ministry of health with regard to the health and wellbeing of children (8).
According to popular nutritionists, parents need not take an extreme approach during
encouraging their kids to eat healthy. Small steps should be taken towards healthy eating. Instead
of fundraising with high sugar, trans-fat laden food, companies should focus on providing