DrFlorentine Martino

Harmful industries create more barriers to good health and wellbeing, especially for our children. Dr Martino’s work focuses on reducing these by monitoring ultra-processed food, alcohol, and gambling brands. By analysing their corporate social responsibility, online ads, influencers and elite sport sponsorships, her research will help regulate their marketing activities to protect our children.

As an invited expert on this Taskforce, I helped develop practical guidance and policy resources to support Victorian sporting clubs in moving away from sponsorship arrangements with harmful industries such as alcohol, gambling and junk food.

Regularly reviews manuscripts for Drug and Alcohol Review, assessing methodological quality, originality and relevance, and providing feedback to support editorial decision-making.

Member of the Public Health Association of Australia, with additional involvement in the Food and Nutrition and Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Special Interest Groups.

Member of the VicHealth Harmful Industries Roundtable since commencing a VicHealth Research Fellowship, contributing to a cross-sector forum bringing together researchers, policymakers and advocacy organisations to share evidence, identify policy priorities, and support collaborative responses to the commercial determinants of health

Not too long ago a global survey named Australia the ‘drunkest country in the world.’ Meanwhile, studies are increasingly emphasising that there is no ‘healthy’ or ‘safe’ level of drinking. In today’s post, VicHealth (@VicHealth) Postdoctoral Fellow Florentine Martino (@FP_Martino) of Deakin University (@IHT_Deakin) discusses how the Australian alcohol industry influences health policy through its registered charity DrinkWise.

As millions worldwide watch the sporting events at the Tokyo Olympics they are also being bombarded with advertisements for unhealthy junk food products. This directly undermines efforts to reduce rising rates of overweight and obesity – one of the greatest threats to global health. In the following post from the Public Health Association of Australia’s In Touch Public Health blog, Associate Professor Kathryn Backholer, Dr Christina Zorbas and Dr Florentine Martino discuss the century-long association between junk food advertising and the Olympics and call on elite athletes, the International Olympic Committee and other sporting organisations to work together to stop the harmful impacts of unhealthy sports sponsorship.

Featured in The Geelong Advertiser (23 June 2023) for research on young people’s exposure to alcohol marketing and user-generated content on social media, with a focus on populations disproportionately affected by alcohol-related harm (VicHealth-funded study).