A number of Sunday newspapers made damning claims yesterday that the marketing agency was among the worst offenders for coaxing youngsters into name-checking brand names of soft drinks and food high in saturated fat, salt or sugar as part of paid buzz marketing campaigns.
Among the brands mentioned in include Coca-Cola's Dr Pepper, Kerry Foods' Cheestrings and Mattel's Barbie.
It stated: "In some cases children as young as seven have been offered the chance to become "mini-marketers" to plug brands by casually dropping them into postings and conversations on social networking sites."
The implications of the article have been robustly attacked by Robin Hilton, marketing director of Dubit.
Talking to Marketing today, Hilton said "the supposed facts" published in some papers this weekend were "totally inaccurate and highly misleading".
He added: "Dubit absolutely and irrevocably does not promote junk food or any HFSS products to anyone under the age of 16.
"There are a number of brands mentioned in the article and it is widely implied that young children are involved with these: this is not true. Our work with Dr Pepper only includes young people over the age of 16 who love Dr Pepper.
"Our work with Cheese Strings was through our Family Panel and only mums were allowed to participate.
"Our work with Barbie took place over four years ago involved mums with daughters, who received an MP3 player and held a party."
Hilton also dismissed claims that the company paid people as young as 12 the equivalent of £25 a week to "say stuff online about sweets", but admitted they do "send as much cool stuff out to our Insiders as brands will allow – as long as these are suitable and do not contravene any regulations".
The article also stated that the company's so-called "Insiders" are involved in "sometimes promoting things they may not even like", a claim Hilton denied as "simply not true".
Established 10 years ago from a successful young enterprise initiative which was then continued by its teenage founders, Dubit has always been closely associated with youth projects.
It recruits thousands of children from seven upwards to take part in surveys that are used by big business to shape products and policy.
It aims to involve young people responsibly in research and marketing, but said most contact them directly after hearing about the company through word-of-mouth.
Hilton said about 15% of the campaigns handled by the company do involve children and parents under the age of 16, and admitted services are growing.
However, he strongly denies any wrong-doing, and pointed to the successful peer-to-peer service it provides for the Government in promoting modern foreign languages.
"This is not about underhand tactics, "said Hilton, "we are incredibly proud of everything we do."
A Coca-Cola spokesman confirmed it had used Dubit to "reach different audiences" but said the company was committed to doing this "responsibly".
He added: "We have worked with Dubit on word of mouth campaigns for our brands, including Fanta and Dr Pepper. With each campaign Dubit has engaged brand ambassadors aged 16 or over who have been subject to Dubit's thorough, existing checks and each would have been contacted by phone to verify their age.
"±±¾©Èü³µpk10 ambassadors are all briefed to be completely transparent about the fact they are working on behalf of our brands and are rewarded with mainstream, high street vouchers when the campaigns complete."
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