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Parent-aimed TV ads for unhealthy children's foods emphasize false message
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Television advertisements for nutritionally poor children’s foods and beverages used emotional messages and false health-related claims to target parents, according to recent research in Pediatrics.
“We analyzed the content of all television advertisements for a set of children’s foods and beverages that aired on national television over 1 year and demonstrated that considerable airtime was devoted to parent-directed advertisements.” Jennifer A. Emond, PhD, MSc, an epidemiology instructor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, and colleagues wrote. “In comparison with child-directed advertisements, parent-directed advertisements … more commonly featured themes of nutrition, health, and an active lifestyle. The use of nutrition and health appeals for children’s foods may divert attention away from poor nutritional quality.”
The researchers analyzed the content of TV ads for packaged children’s foods and drinks between 2012 and 2013. They categorized the ads as parent-targeted or child-targeted. Parent-targeted ads included emotional appeals related to family and love, while child-targeted ads contained fun, adventure and animated licensed characters.
Of the 51 children’s food and drink products advertised in 342 unique commercials, 49% targeted parents. These ads were more likely to contain messages related to nutrition, health and active lifestyle compared with child-targeted ads that focused on product flavor and fun.
Parents were the focus of 42.4% of the total amount of airtime devoted to all products. Commercials for sugar-sweetened drinks, children’s yogurt and cereals were advertised most often and directed at parents in 72.8%, 25.8% and 24.4% of cases, respectively.
“Study findings additionally highlight a marketing approach that may become increasingly more common as federal and international organizations work to limit child-directed marketing of nutritionally questionable foods,” Emond and colleagues wrote. “As policymakers and researchers evaluate the effectiveness of such policies, the potential effect that parent-directed marketing for those foods may have on a child’s dietary intake and health should be considered.” – by David Costill
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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