A comparison between healthy and non-healthy food. AbstractThis research aims to investigate the effects of food advergaming on children's eating habits. A total of 231 elementary school-age children were randomly assigned to one of the following two conditions: (i) play the healthy advergame; (ii) play the less healthy advergame. A pos-treatment pictured questionnaire was used to assess their behavior in terms of immediate food choice, food liking, and nutritional knowledge. Results showed that children tend to choose a snack accordingly to what was being advertised in the game.In terms of food liking, children who played the less healthy version of the game reported a higher preference for some of the less healthy options. Regarding nutritional knowledge no differences were registered which leads us to conclude that they already have a solid understanding of what are "good" and "bad" foods for their health. These findings have important legal, educational, management and social marketing contributions.Key Words Advergames; children; eating behaviors; nutritional knowledge. Introduction "Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century"World Health Organization 1 Obesity is now considered the fifth leading global risk for mortality and has reached an epidemic status. 43 million children under five years-old are considered overweight (WHO, 2010). In Europe, Lobstein et al. (2004) showed that there is a higher prevalence for overweight children in Southern Europe, especially in Mediterranean region (Exhibit B1). This is of great concern to all of us, especially to food industry which has largely contributed to this issue due to energy-dense food availability and strong communication campaigns directed to children (Hastings et al., 2006 Authors have proven that food marketed to children is predominantly high-sugared and fat-based, inconsistent with dietary recommendations (Story and French, 2004). The same trend characterizes the content of food marketing on popular children websites, where the most marketed food products are candy, cereal, quick serve restaurant meals and snacks (Alvy and Calvert, 2008). Food industry keeps spending millions on less healthy food products advertisement (Exhibit B2). As a result, children's food decisions are often made in high-calorie or nutrient-poor environments.These health-related behaviors, largely shaped by media, are developed during early childhood, influencing children's quality of life (Williams et al., 2005) and are likely to persist in adulthood (McGinnis et al., 2006).The purpose of this paper is to analyze how advergames, interactive product-themed digital games, influence their eating behavior. Literature Review The Web and the KidsGeneration Z "the digital natives, the dot com kids" generationz.com.au The most recent generation in the world, today's kids, is characterized as the socially empowered generation ever. They are technologically literate and have been shaped to multi-task. Today's boys and girls were born wi...

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The objective of this study was to understand how food packaging can influence children's attitudes and purchase decisions toward healthier choices. The appealing components of junk food packaging were transferred onto healthy food in order to test its effect on children's package evaluation, attention to packaging attitude toward the product, perceived healthiness and purchase intention. A structured questionnaire was completed by a sample of 408 Portuguese children aged between 10 and 14 years. Findings suggest that food packaging can influence children's attitudes and purchase intentions. These results should be considered by food companies that target children and aim at improving their dietary habits.

The goal of this study is to understand the influence of event sponsorship on children and their ability to fully understand its persuasive intent. A wide range of research addresses the effects of sponsorship on adults, but not much looks at children. We study the effects of sponsorship on a new target: children between the ages of 7 and 11. We analyse effects on the sponsor's brand image and on purchase intentions, and study the moderator effects of product involvement and brand familiarity. A structured questionnaire was completed by a sample of 334 children in the defined age range. Findings suggest that sponsorship can influence children's image of the advertised brand and their purchasing intentions, especially in the case of non-familiar brands. Additionally, our research suggests that sponsorship can affect the purchasing intention for low-involvement products, while brand image is more affected in the case of high-involvement products, contrary to our expectations. Moreover, results show that the majority of children do not recognize sponsorship's persuasive intent, and therefore our research has important managerial implications, highlighting the caution that should be used in the case of sponsoring activities with children.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the magnitude of the impact advergames have on children’s preferences and choices for unhealthy products and brands, in terms of time of exposure (immediate vs delayed) and number of exposures (single vs repeated exposure). Past literature has focused essentially on the immediate effects of single exposures to advergames. Few studies explored the delayed or repetition effects and found wear-out effects of multiple exposure and also no delayed effects of single exposure. Therefore, this study will reduce the existent gap in the literature by studying simultaneously both effects. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 104 children aged 6-9 years old was used, divided into three groups (no exposure/single exposure/repeated exposure) in an experimental between-subjects design setting. Findings The results confirm the existence of all the expected effects: exposure to advergames has immediate and longer effects on a child’s preferences and choices of the brand depicted in the advergame and in that product category. Repeated exposure to the advergame enhances all the effects on the brand, but not on the product category. Originality/value Although earlier literature has already analyzed time and repetition effects on traditional media, or sought to analyze effects of advergames but with an adult sample, this article highlights the extent of these effects with children, and based on these results, reflects on the ethicality of using advergames with children on products high in fat, salt and/or sugar.