Tim Caulfield, health law professor at the University of Alberta, joined CTV Morning Live’s Kent Morrison to separate real from fake in online marketing.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Kent Morrison: In the internet age, advertisers are using algorithms to market certain products to us by age and gender, among other things. Often we’re warned of serious consequences if we don’t take action.
Tim, let’s start with one that I know in my circles generates a lot of discussion: Do young people, specifically girls, need skin care products, specific regimens and routines to keep their skin glowing?
Tim Caulfield: No, no, no. I find this really aggravating and you nailed it. This is targeted marketing. It’s the impact of more kids being on the internet, on TikTok, being influenced by influencers. They’re called “Sephora kids,” and it really is having a big impact. There was a study that came out very recently that found that less than fifty per cent of tweens can identify branded content.
When an influencer is talking about their skin routine, making it sound like it’s necessary, most kids – a little more than half – don’t realize it’s an advertisement. So this is a real problem, and it can be harmful. Some of these products have serious chemicals in them. Also, this isn’t healthy from a body image perspective, right? Kids should not be worrying about aging. It sort of sets up not a great path.
Kent: This doesn’t just happen to these young girls. It’s everybody on the internet that gets this. I know a lot of the time in my algorithm, I get things like, “these are the books you need to read to be a man,” or, “this is the diet you need to be to be more manly.” Do men need to be more manly?
Tim: Yeah, this is another huge, growing part of the wellness sector. As you know, we did a documentary on this exact topic, and there really is no evidence to suggest that being more manly is going to improve your health.
On the contrary, most of the research says that traditional masculine norms, which, let’s be honest, this is what they’re pushing, are connected with poorer health outcomes, poor mental health, poorer relationships. The evidence doesn’t support this, but it speaks to the degree to which the algorithms know us. They know us, and they’re trying to sell us stuff.
Kent: And it seemingly often has a health focus. Is that a new strategy here?
Tim: I think part of that is the marketing. Fear, playing to values, creating insecurity, it’s an old trick, right? If you think of the old school wellness industry, it was focused largely, not entirely, on women. The whole strategy was create insecurity, create anxiety, and then sell pills and potions to solve the problem that they created. I think it’s a sector that’s ripe for that exploitation. It’s a sector where those algorithms really work.
Kent: You think we should be teaching kids more about critical thinking?
Tim: You’re exactly right. This is a generational problem. It’s not going away. Teaching critical thinking skills early and often is absolutely necessary. This is what they do in Finland. Can they start as early as kindergarten? Hard to study this well, but research tells us that it really does make a difference.
In that study, they found that kids that were taught media literacy skills were much more likely to appropriately fact check, and much more likely to go in with a skeptical mind. The second thing that we can all do is recognize – recognize the machine is trying to manipulate us. That’s a pre-front, pre-bunking strategy that helps everyone.