In Canada, the promotion of alcohol, cannabis, gambling, tobacco, and vaping products to minors is largely prohibited by federal and/or provincial legal frameworks. And even where there are no legal restrictions on promotions, the selling of these products to minors is illegal, and the codes of conduct regulating the organizations that sell them place restrictions on marketing and advertising initiatives targeting that particular demographic.

Nevertheless, research has shown that these products are being promoted in ways that appeal to minors in Canada, including through various media and in places where minors tend to spend a lot of time (Asquith, 2021a, 2021b; El-Toukhy et al., 2018; Fournier and Gagnon, 2023; Hammond et al., 2024; Kennedy et al., 2023; Narkar et al., 2019; Paradis et al., 2020; Rup et al., 2020; Sklar, 2011). Additional research also indicates that young people are in fact exposed to promotional messages about these products, and that such exposure is associated with increased consumption and/or frequency of consumption (Cho et al., 2019; El-Toukhy et al., 2018; D. Jernigan et al., 2017; Noël et al., 2024). Furthermore, young people may be exposed to promotional messages without even realizing it, such as through product placement — a form of marketing that involves inserting products and brands into the scripts of television programs and movies, without actually portraying those scenes as advertisements (Gottin, 2022).

Using a comparative approach, this article offers a prospective analysis of the potential of the existing federal legal frameworks to limit the exposure of young people to commercial promotional messages that may encourage them to consume the above-mentioned products. The goal of this study is to systematically investigate and identify the strengths and limitations of each type of legislation, thus allowing the most effective legal frameworks or provisions to be preserved, while those that are deemed less effective may be fine-tuned. The attainment of these goals may be supported by other studies that focus either on promotional strategies and practices or on the exposure of young people to such promotional messages.