3. Overview:
Obesity
Overweight: defined as 85th percentile for age and sex
Obesity: defined as 95th percentile for age and sex
1 in 3 children in the United States are overweight
Over 25 million children aged 2-19
1 in 6 children in the United States are obese
12.7 million children aged 2-19
National trend: energy intake as energy output
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
4. Overview:
Food Marketing
Food = 12.5% of American consumers’ spending
$7 billion spent on food advertising in 1999
That year, USDA spent only $333.3 million on nutrition education
A typical grocery store houses thousands of products
More variety = more profits
Items marketed are high in energy: sodium, sugar and fat
3 to 4-year olds make an average of 24.9 requests every day
Primarily for candy, snack food and toys
Marketers especially interested in younger demographic
0
1,000,000,000
2,000,000,000
3,000,000,000
4,000,000,000
5,000,000,000
6,000,000,000
7,000,000,000
8,000,000,000
Food Advertising Nutrition Education
Money spent on Food in 1999 (in dollars)
Product Companies USDA
Sources: United States Department of Agriculture, Gallo 1999
6. Persuasive
Characteristics
Role models and popular characters
Folkvord et al., 2013
Children perceive (energy-dense) food as being healthier
Lioutas andTzimitra-Kalogianni, 2014
Positive messaging
Harris et al., 2009
11. Marketing
Healthy Foods
(Does it work?)
The overarching question: Will marketing healthy food
using these same tactics increase children’s intake of
healthy food?
Answer: mixed results
NO:
1) “Healthy” McDonald’s
Happy Meal
• Boyland et al., 2015
2) Advergame with food
cues, general intake
• Folkvord et al., 2013
YES:
• Food versus Non-food
PacMan advergame
• Pempek and Calvert, 2009
• Branding produce containers
• Keller et al., 2012
12. “Exposureto ‘healthy’
fastfoodmealbundles
in television
advertisements
promotesliking forfast
foodbutnothealthier
choicesin children”
Boyland et al.
2015
59 children (age 7-10)
CONTROL GROUP
10 toy advertisements
EXPERIMENTALGROUP
9 toy advertisements, 1
healthy Happy Meal
advertisement
GREATER liking for
fast food in general
(p=0.004)
Preferences
did not differ
13. “The effectofplaying
advergames that
promoteenergy-dense
snacks orfruitonactual
foodintake among
children”
Folkvord et al.
2013
270 children
(age 8-10)
CONTROL
GROUP (n = 69)
Ate first,
Then played
advergame
FRUIT GROUP
(n = 67)
Played fruit
advergame first,
Then ate
SNACK GROUP
(n = 69)
Played snack
advergame first,
Then ate
NON-FOOD
GROUP (n = 65)
Played non-food
advergame first,
Then ate
1. Children who played EITHER food game ate more than the children in both the non-food and
control groups (p < 0.01).
2. Children in BOTH food games ate significantly more energy-dense snacks (p <0.01).
3. Children in FRUIT group did not eat significantly more fruit than the other groups.
14. What does
this mean?
Stimulus of food causes appetite, regardless
of food type
Food cues direct food intake
15. “Tipping the Balance:
Use ofAdvergames to
PromoteConsumption
ofNutritious Foods
andBeverages by Low-
IncomeAfrican
AmericanChildren”
Pempek and
Calvert 2009
28 children
(age 9-10)
FRUIT GROUP
Played fruit
advergame first,
Then ate
SNACK GROUP
Played snack
advergame first,
Then ate
CONTROL GROUP
Ate first,
Then played
advergame
Children who played fruit version chose
significantly healthier snacks and
children who played snack version
chose less healthy snacks (p=0.001).
“With only 10 minutes of exposure, our results revealed
that children selected and ate whatever snacks were being
marketed by the advergame, healthy or not.”
16. “The impact offood
branding onchildren’s
eating behavior and
obesity”
Keller et al.
2012
16 children
(age 4-5)
at risk for obesity
EXPERIMENTAL
GROUP
(n = 7)
Containers
decorated with
favorite cartoon
characters, stickers
inside
CONTROL GROUP
(n = 9)
Containers
undecorated, no
incentive inside
All children’s parents
received 24 8-oz
containers filled with
ready-to-eat produce
All children offered
their fruit/vegetable of
choice 3x/day
7 weeks, meet weekly
(2 serving) Total
fruit/vegetable
consumption by 125g
No change in
fruit/vegetable
consumption (p=0.07)
Packaging removed, 200g (3
full servings!!) in 4 more days
17. Takeaways
Obvious stimuli may drive choices
May be possible to promote healthy food intake among
children by manipulating branding cues
18. Conclusion
Implications (of obesity)
Mixed study results
Future research
What we can do about it
Tips for parents
Educate children themselves
Policy makers
In 2013, U.S. consumers, businesses, and government entities spent $1.4 trillion on food and beverages in grocery stores and other retailers and on away-from-home meals and snacks. (USDA)
An example- start at 1:20/Trix commercial (note: “part of a breakfast that’s NUTRITIOUS”)
Screenshot = Google search for “advergame” ….EVERY single image comes up as one related to food, without prompting.
FOLKVORD 2013: Oftentimes, child-directed marketing includes celebrities well known to children or popular cartoon characters. Video games embedded with brand-sponsored advertisements that involve animated adventures may make it more difficult for a child to realize the game’s persuasive intent. In 2001 study done by Borzekowski and Robinson, only 1/3 of children knew that the intent of the commercials they watched were to “persuade people to buy things.”
LIOUTAS 2014: In this study, the effects of how advertising affects children’s pattern and frequency of unhealthy food consumption was investigated, as well as how children perceived the attributes of food products. A sample of 211 children in Greece aged 6-12 were given a questionnaire and asked to rate both hypothetical products and products from food advertisements as “healthy, tasty, fashionable, cheap, nutritious and of good quality.” Children were reported to perceive advertised food products as more desirable than non-advertised foods. The children who had little understanding of the advertisements’ persuasive nature also believed that advertised foods were healthier as well as showed a higher psychological satisfaction when purchasing advertised foods.
HARRIS 2009: Food advertising directed towards children portrays unhealthy eating behaviors to have cool, fun and positive outcomes in order to take advantage of the fact that people instinctually mimic others’ behavior. In this way, products marketed to be “cool” will make a child feel “cool” when using that product in real life.
In Harris’s study, researchers realized that food marketers typically focus on immediate sensory gratification of consumption in order to lower resistance to their messages.
BASICS OF STUDY: 118 elementary-age children were randomly assigned to watch a 14-minute cartoon that included four advertisements for snack foods such as potato chips and fruit roll-ups, or advertising that was nonfood related. Participants were given a glass of water and goldfish crackers (which were not advertised) to eat during the experiment.
RESULTS: Children consumed 45% more when exposed to food advertisements.
RELEVANCE TO TOPIC: Mindless snacking is a large contributor to caloric intake in general, and higher caloric intake leads to overweight and obesity. If television food advertisements have an additive effect to mindless eating, it could be a contributor to this country’s obesity epidemic.
PRIME SHELVING SPOTS: Advertisers pay for prime shelving spots in supermarkets. Is there a reason that brand-name cereal boxes depicting popular children’s characters and famous cartoons are on the lower shelves? By placing them at a child’s eye level, they are much more likely to be noticed by a child and the likelihood that they will ask the parent for it has dramatically increased, just by simple product placement. Not only are children’s cereals placed half as high as adult cereal (23” high versus 48” high), the gaze of characters featured on children’s cereal boxes is downward at a 9.6 degree angle in order to better catch a child’s eye.
CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS: Popular “machines” of the entertainment industry, such as Disney, Fox Kids Network and the National Basketball Association create multimillion, multiyear deals with leading companies in the food industry, such as McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Eggo Waffles. Together, it is seemingly impossible to escape food advertisements when they are brought out by such large influences in our every day lives.
PROMOTIONAL SUPPORT: Product placement: This is increasing in popularity and is more commonly used as an acceptable marketing channel. Food companies bargain money or promotional support for their brand’s incorporation into a television show or movie, either as a background prop or an integral part of the plot (Story and French 2004). This practice first gained attention in 1982 when E.T., The Extra Terrestrial struck a $1 million deal with Hershey to include Reese’s Pieces in a scene, and in the two weeks following the movie’s release, the peanut butter chocolate’s sales increased by 65%.
All children shown 10 advertisements during an episode of Phineas and Ferb. Experimental group replaced one toy commercial with one for a “healthy” Happy Meal which advertised fish fingers, a bag of fruit and mineral water.
After the show, children were shown pictures of different types of fast food and were asked to create their ideal Happy Meal. Instead of choosing healthier options, there was no difference in the sugar, sodium, fat and energy content between the two groups. In fact, when given a survey asking how much they liked fast food, the experimental group showed a significant increase in liking for fast food in general in comparison to the control group.
The point of this study was to examine whether advergames promoting fruit would stimulate fruit consumption.
Children played online memory games created identically by a professional designer, with the only difference being whether children played a toy or a food game, and which type of food products (snacks or fruit) on the front of the cards. Children were then given 4 bowls of food: two that contained energy-dense snacks (one of which was shown in the game, one not) and two that contained fruit (one of which was shown in the game, one not) and were allowed to eat ad libitum for 5 minutes. Children in the control group were allowed to eat first, and then played the game.
Results: Children who played EITHER of the food-related games ate significantly more than the children in both the non-food and control groups (p <0.01). They also ate significantly more energy-dense snacks. Children who played the fruit game did not eat significantly more fruit than the other groups.
Cross-sectional, between-subjects examination (30 low-income African American children, Washington DC).
After playing, all 28 children were asked what they thought Pac-Man wanted them to eat and drink. 25/28 guessed correctly when asked what Pac-Man wanted them to eat (based on their condition) and 27/28 guessed correctly when asked what Pac-Man wanted them to drink.
All children reported to “like” or “really like” the game, so regardless of the treatment condition, all children found the game enjoyable.
“at risk for obesity” = at least one parent with a BMI > 25, consumes <2 servings fruits & vegetables/day
Foods included: raw blueberries, pineapple, red pepper, carrot, beet, broccoli
Even following the removal of the packaging cues, children continued to increase intake. This suggests that once behaviors are established, children no longer need to be incentivized.
Over 7-weeks, surprising result that children in Experimental group had overall decrease in BMI z-score, whereas the BMI in the Control group children was significantly increased (p<0.05).
IMPLICATIONS: Children who develop overweight/obesity in younger years are likely to stay obese in adulthood and develop other nutrition-related diseases (i.e. diabetes, CVD) later in life. Through this presentation, you can see that marketing food to children plays a large role in contributing to the obesogenic environment in which children are surrounded and live.
MIXED STUDY RESULTS: Inconclusive, so more needs to be done in studying marketing healthy foods to children.
FUTURE RESEARCH: Larger studies (see how these children’s habits affect them once in adulthood) over a longer period of time (the longer children exposed to ads, the more they are affected); try the obvious route (so the children KNOW what they are “supposed to be eating” after exposure to the advertisement)
WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT:
Elements in our obesogenic environment that do not enhance, and may even hinder, children’s likelihood of making healthy dietary choices need to be tackled.
Parents may want to limit children’s electronic time, because this indirectly lessens exposure to unhealthy advertisements.
Educate children on how to be more defensive against the influences of food marketing, and make standards about eating appropriateness more clear at a younger age so that children can be guided to make smarter snack/meal choices.
More policy regulation, i.e. making fast food children meals have to meat specific nutritional criteria, or allowing only a certain amount of displays within one area of a store, etc.
