Gross for kids but good for parents: differing messages in advertisements for the same products

Abstract

Objectives: There has been surprisingly little research into the effects of food advertising on parents' perception of commonly consumed children's food items, although the available research suggests that parents may find nutritional claims in these advertisements confusing. The purpose of the present study was to investigate parents' perceptions of branded snack foods targeted at children, and the extent to which these perceptions are influenced by advertising messages. Design: Using an intercept survey, participants were shown either adult-targeted or child-targeted advertisements for the same food products. Setting: Central business district of a major Australian city. Subjects: One hundred adults, mean age 40 years. Results: The study results suggest that: (1) adults' perceptions of advertised food products and, most importantly, purchase intentions for those products differ according to the version of the advertisement seen (for three of the products, 42-54% would buy the product after seeing the child version compared with 82-84% after seeing the adult version); and (2) adults clearly perceive distinctly different messages in advertisements for the same products which are targeting parents vs. those targeting children (e.g. for three of the products, 74-92% perceived that the adult version of the advertisement suggested the food was nutritionally beneficial compared with 2-14% perceiving this for the child version). Conclusions: It is clear that the messages conveyed to children about specific foods are quite different to the messages conveyed to adults -and importantly parents -about the same foods.

Art of persuasion: An analysis of techniques used to market foods to children

“…The findings also highlighted that food advertisers are more likely to directly address parents than children to promote foods for children's consumption. This may be related to an expectation that parents will be more likely to purchase an advertised food product if the advertisement is targeted towards them, as found by Jones and Fabrianesi 35 . As food advertising restrictions have focused primarily on children as a target audience of marketing communications, this finding raises the need for further exploration of the potential effects of advertising unhealthy foods to parents on their purchasing intentions and on the foods their children ultimately consume.…”

Beyond Food Promotion: A Systematic Review on the Influence of the Food Industry on Obesity-Related Dietary Behaviour among Children

“…Whilst most studies examined a broad range of ages (about 2 to 11 years), nine had a narrow age range of two or three years [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. With respect to methodology, four studies were descriptive [ 29 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], ten were content analysis [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], five were quasi-experimental [ 9 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], nine were experimental [ 22 , 23 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ] and seven were correlational studies [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ].…”

What I say isn’t always what I do: Investigating differences in children’s reported and actual snack food preferences

“…This may include packaging healthy food differently (such as in easy to eat forms that do not require children to stop playing to consumer them) and marketing healthy food differently (focusing on the taste and enjoyment of the food rather than its 'good'-ness). The obvious counterpoint to this is the need to continue to address the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, with numerous studies showing that advertising for these foods associates their consumption with fun and excitement -including bright packaging, intensely coloured and flavoured ingredients, free gifts, competitions, and link-ups with cartoon characters, pop stars, sporting heroes and popular children's films [41][42][43][44].…”