Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 142, January 2017, Pages 22-30
Public Health

Original Research
Weekday and weekend food advertising varies on children's television in the USA but persuasive techniques and unhealthy items still dominate

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2016.10.011Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Despite industry self-regulation, unhealthy food advertising persists on children's television.

  • Healthy and unhealthy food advertisements contain similar amounts of persuasive techniques.

  • Food advertisements aimed at kids use more persuasive techniques than those aimed at adults.

  • Saturday morning TV shows fewer food ads compared to weekday TV.

  • Current policy efforts may need additional changes to address marketing techniques.

Abstract

Objective

In 2006, food industry self-regulatory efforts aimed to balance the mix of food advertisements to limit children's exposure to unhealthy food products. An update to these efforts proposed to eliminate all unhealthy advertisements during peak child viewing times and implement uniform nutrition criteria by December, 2013. Marketing techniques are not currently addressed in self-regulatory efforts. The food industry's pledge prompted researchers to conduct a content analysis to assess nutritional quality and presence of persuasive marketing techniques in child-directed food and beverage advertisements.

Study design

Content analysis.

Methods

32 h of children's television programming were recorded in February, 2013. Three independent coders assessed the nutritional content of food and beverage advertisements using the UK Nutrition Profiling System and assessed presence of persuasive techniques (PTs) using a rating form developed for this study.

Results

Overall, 13.75% of advertisements promoted a food or beverage product. Most food advertisements, 54.6%, represented unhealthy products and 95.48% of food advertisements contained at least one PT. The number of PTs was not significantly different for healthy (M = 4.98, SD = 2.07) and unhealthy food advertisements (M = 4.66, SD = 1.82) however food advertisements aimed at children used significantly more PTs (M = 5.5, SD = 1.43) than those targeting adults (M = 1.52, SD = 1.54), t (153) = 11.738, P < 0.0001. Saturday morning children's programming showed significantly fewer food advertisements compared to weekday morning children's programming.

Conclusions

While a majority of food-related advertisements represented unhealthy items, advertisements airing during Saturday morning programming featured fewer food advertisements overall and were more frequently for healthier items compared to weekdays. Industry self-regulation may not be effective for reducing overall unhealthy ad exposure but may play a role in reduced exposure on weekends. Despite policy efforts, additional changes are needed to improve ad exposure experienced by children with a focus on addressing the persistent use of persuasive marketing techniques in food advertising intended for children.

Introduction

In the USA about 12.5 million (17%) youth aged 2–19 years are obese.1 Children who experience excess weight gain at an early age are at an elevated risk for obesity in later childhood and adulthood. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study found overweight kindergarteners were four times more likely to become obese by the eighth grade compared to children who entered kindergarten at a normal weight.2 Additionally, about two-thirds of obese children remain obese into adulthood, making childhood obesity a life-long health issue associated with numerous comorbidities including metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.3, 4, 5 Dietary factors including increased consumption of salty, high-sugar, high-fat foods and declines in the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables among children are important influences on obesity.6, 7 Environmental exposures, including television viewing and the larger food advertising environment, may also be important factors contributing to poor diet and obesity among children.

Children view an estimated 30 h of television food advertisements each year.8 In 2009, 48 food and beverage marketers spent $1.79 billion to advertise products to children ranging from 2 to 17 years old.9 Food is the second most frequently advertised product during child-viewing times and frequently food advertisements focus on promoting products of low nutritional quality.10, 11 Kelly et al.12 reported that 32% of food advertisements in the USA consisted of promotions for fast food. Additionally, studies indicate between 67% and 84% of US food advertisements consist of unhealthy foods.12, 13

Persuasive techniques (PTs) are frequently used to market food to children.10, 12, 14, 15 Food advertisements often include techniques such as emphasizing fun,11, 16, 17 using sound effects, fast moving images, cartoon characters,11, 12, 16 giveaways,12 and special effects to attract the attention of children.11 PTs are defined as strategies that increase children's brand loyalty, recall of advertisements, purchase requests, preferences and consumption of advertised foods.18 Marketing techniques used to sell food to children are considered persuasive because children are not able to cognitively discern the selling intent of advertisements until around age eight years and understanding of persuasive intent does not emerge until around 12 years of age or later, making young children vulnerable to these techniques.19

There are a variety of components of advertisements that are utilized to sell food to children including emotional appeals, production effects and character endorsements. One study found 82% of food advertisements aimed at children used a fun appeal (associating fun and happiness with a product without referencing the product itself) and 57% of advertisements used an action appeal;16 85% of commercials in a similar study also used a fun appeal.17 Kelly et al.12 found that across six countries surveyed, 12% of television food advertisements directed towards children contained a persuasive marketing technique such as a competition, giveaway, rebate or voucher; with the presence of such techniques jumping to 34% in US food advertisements.

Previous research has documented that unhealthy advertisements use PTs at a higher rate compared to healthier advertisements. In a study assessing the use of promotional characters and premiums, 75% of unhealthy food advertisements featured at least one persuasive marketing technique compared to only 13% of healthier food advertisements using similar techniques.12 Furthermore, children appear to be the disproportionate recipients of PTs. Wicks et al.15 found that food advertisements during programming for children younger than 11 years contained significantly more emotional appeals and production techniques compared to food advertisements during shows for older audiences. These findings suggest that using PTs to market unhealthy food is considered an appropriate method for targeting children.

Continued assessment of the advertising environment, including excessive exposure to food advertisements featuring unhealthy products and use of PTs, is important given the potential impact it may have on diet quality and obesity. In an experimental setting, Kotler et al.20 found the use of popular characters in food advertisements influenced self-reported preferences for specific food items and actual food choices among children. Another study found children who viewed programming with food advertisements consumed 45% more snack food compared to children exposed to the same programming without foods advertisements.21 Additionally, children exposed to advertisements for low nutritional quality foods were more likely to demonstrate a preference for, and choose less healthy foods, compared to children who did not view food advertisements depicting low-nutritional quality foods.22, 23, 24

Heavier television use is associated with higher intake of unhealthy food items suggesting that the influence on diet may be dose dependent.22 Exposure to food advertising also appears to have long-term effects on diet including increased consumption of fast foods, fried foods and sugar-sweetened beverages as well as decreases in fruit, vegetable and whole grain purchases.25 In a sample of children who were heavy television viewers, the previously described dietary outcomes were found five years later indicating heavy television viewing in early years may contribute to unhealthy eating habits into young adulthood.25

Television viewing may also be associated with obesity. Among boys with varying levels of physical activity, those who watched more television were more likely to be obese compared to less frequent television watchers.26 Similarly, viewing commercials was significantly associated with obesity in children, such that every additional hour of commercial viewing was associated with an increase in BMI z-scores, while viewing non-commercial programming showed no significant association with obesity.27

Government regulation and industry self-regulation are the two official forms of regulation for advertising in the USA. In terms of government regulation, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates children's programming while the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for protecting against deceptive or false advertising.28 Government regulatory efforts enacted by the FCC in 1974 placed restrictions limiting the amount of advertising allowed during children's TV shows. The 1974 restrictions were followed by deregulation in 1984 reversing the previous limits on advertising during children's TV. This period of deregulation was followed by more regulation in 1990 with the Children's Television Act which reinstated the 1974 regulations on advertising time during children's shows, limiting advertisements to 10.5 min per hour on weekends and 12 min per hour on weekdays.26 An overview of key changes in the USA regulations on children's advertising are described by Story et al.14 Restrictions concerning children's advertising have rotated between periods of regulation and deregulation and currently, the USA is in a period of deregulation where the food industry predominantly engages in voluntary self-regulation whereby food companies can elect to regulate the type foods they market to children by adhering to set guidelines.29

The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), part of the Council of Better Business Bureau (CBBB), is a group that engages in self-regulation of advertising directed at children.28 In 2006 the CBBB enacted the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) and pledged to reduce unhealthy marketing to children by focusing on healthier choices and limiting use of promotional characters on television advertisements.11 In July, 2007, participants agreed to “devote at least 50% of child-directed advertising to healthier products and/or messages promoting healthier lifestyles” by January, 2009 (p. 60).30 In January, 2010, the pledge was revised with participants agreeing that 100% of advertising would consist of healthy items when at least 35% of viewers were ages 2–11 years.31 Participants moved to CFBAI-developed uniform nutrition criteria in December, 2013.31 There are currently 18 food companies that take part in the voluntary pledge.31 Companies involved in the pledge agree to adhere to the CARU's guidelines for how products should be marketed to children32 and enquiries regarding company compliance with guidelines can be submitted to the CBBB and CARU.33 Companies who are cited for violations can discontinue the non-compliant practices and pledge to adhere to guidelines in future advertising; persistent non-compliant cases can be referred to the FTC.34

Given the importance of promoting healthy weight and healthy food choices among children, and evidence indicating that persuasive marketing techniques are a significant determinant of children's food behaviours and overall health,35 we evaluated the nature and extent of children's advertising exposure. This study provides an analysis of US food advertisements during peak children's viewing hours focusing on nutritional content and persuasiveness of food and beverage advertisements. We explore (1) overall ad exposure and the proportion of healthy and unhealthy advertisements; (2) the use of persuasive marketing techniques in healthy vs unhealthy advertisements; (3) the use of persuasive marketing techniques in advertisements aimed at children vs adults; and (4) the nutritional content of advertisements aimed at children vs adults. We also summarize differences in weekday vs weekend food advertisements aired during peak children's viewing times.

Section snippets

Study design

A total of 32 h of children's television programming (155 food advertisements) was recorded on four days during the first week of February, 2013. Fig. 1 displays the recording blocks that included two consecutive Saturday mornings and two weekday mornings. All programming was broadcast in the North Central Florida area on the following television networks: National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), The CW Television Network

Results

A total of 1127 advertisements (food and non-food) appeared within the 32 h of children's television programming recorded by researchers. Food advertisements represented 13.75% (n = 155) of all of the advertisements in the sample. Fig. 2 displays the average number of food advertisements per half-hour by network. Overall, an average of 2.44 (SD = 2.32) food advertisements were shown per half-hour of children's programming. Cartoon Network averaged more than four food advertisements per

Discussion

This study shows a majority of the food-related advertisements shown during children's programming represent unhealthy items based on NP scores. This finding is consistent with other content analyses which have found food-related advertisements during children's programming are predominantly unhealthy.43, 44 The high prevalence of unhealthy food advertisements is concerning considering established relationships between commercial viewing and diet22, 24 as well as obesity.27 Despite the

Ethical approval

None sought.

Funding

None declared.

Competing interests

None declared.

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