Festive marketing fuels Nigeria’s health crisis, CAPPA warns

A Nigerian civil society group, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), has accused food and beverage companies of exploiting festive periods to aggressively promote sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods, warning that the practice is worsening the country’s growing public health crisis.

The allegation was made on Tuesday in Lagos by CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, during the presentation of a new report titled Unhealthy Food Hijack of Festive Periods in Nigeria.

According to the report, companies intensified marketing activities during the 2025 Christmas and 2026 New Year celebrations, using cultural and religious moments as “high-impact marketing windows” to drive consumption of products high in sugar, salt and unhealthy fats.

CAPPA said its monitoring, carried out between late November 2025 and early January 2026, covered malls, open markets, transport hubs, places of worship and digital platforms. What it observed, the group noted, went beyond seasonal celebration to what it described as deliberate market expansion.

“Festive periods were treated as opportunities to normalise frequent consumption of unhealthy products by linking them to togetherness, generosity, celebration and even moral virtue,” Oluwafemi said.

The report found that the campaigns were highly coordinated, involving outdoor branding, sponsored events, market activations, community and school donations, and targeted digital advertising. CAPPA said these efforts were particularly concentrated in low-income communities, where exposure is highest and regulatory protections are weakest.

A key concern highlighted in the report is the use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives as covert marketing tools. CAPPA argued that donations to schools, churches, markets and community groups were heavily branded and widely publicised, effectively embedding unhealthy products into social and religious spaces.

“These activities are presented as acts of goodwill, but in reality function as advertising,” Oluwafemi said, adding that the approach mirrors tactics historically used by tobacco companies to shield themselves from public scrutiny.

CAPPA warned that festive-period marketing acts as a “risk multiplier” in a country already facing a severe non-communicable disease burden. Nigeria has seen rising rates of hypertension, stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, while access to diagnosis, treatment and long-term care remains limited and costly.

As ultra-processed foods increasingly displace traditional diets, the group said households are pushed into cycles of illness, out-of-pocket health spending and poverty, placing additional strain on an underfunded health system.

In response to its findings, CAPPA called for comprehensive, legally binding restrictions on the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of unhealthy food and beverage products, especially during festive periods. It said industry self-regulation has failed and has largely served as a public relations exercise.

The group recommended that advertising restrictions cover digital platforms, outdoor advertising, broadcast media and point-of-sale promotions, including a ban on influencer marketing, celebrity endorsements and algorithmically targeted advertising where children and young people are likely to be exposed.

CAPPA also urged the government to prohibit branded CSR activities by food and beverage companies in schools, religious institutions and community spaces, arguing that donations tied to brand visibility are indirect advertising strategies.

Other recommendations include limits on outdoor advertising density in low-income areas and transport corridors, stricter regulation or outright bans on festive activations involving giveaways and price promotions, and a strengthened sugar-sweetened beverage tax set at 50 per cent of the retail price.

The organisation further called for mandatory front-of-pack warning labels, tougher enforcement by regulatory agencies, stiffer penalties for violations, and sanctions such as fines, licence suspensions and public disclosure of offending companies.

CAPPA also appealed to policymakers to move beyond incremental reforms, urged the media to interrogate festive marketing campaigns rather than report them at face value, and challenged the food and beverage industry to align its practices with public health goals.

“Festive seasons should not come with hidden health costs,” Oluwafemi said. “Nigeria must reclaim its public spaces, regulate its food environment, and place public health above corporate profit.”