Investigating the Effects of Non-Branded Foods Placed in Cartoons on Children’s Food Choices through Type of Food, Modality and Age

Abstract

Cartoons are among the most consumed media products by children, especially those at a young age. While branded food placements are not allowed in animated series, non-branded food placements are prevalent. However, little is known about the effects that these food placements might have on children’s eating preferences. In an experimental study with 124 children (51.6% girls, age range: 7–11, Mage = 9.24, and SD = 1.19), 62 children in the experimental condition were exposed to 16 food placements in cartoons, whereas children in the control condition were exposed to cartoon scenes without foods. The healthiness of the placed foods (low nutritional value foods versus high nutritional value foods) as well as the modality of food placements (unimodal versus bimodal) were manipulated. After watching the cartoon scenes, children completed a choice task where each placed food appeared on a separate choice card. Our results indicate that non-branded low nutritional value foods placed in cartoons are an effective strategy in modifying children’s food choices when children are under age 9. We suggest that policy makers, particularly those involved in the content design of cartoons, take these results into account when placing low nutritional value foods in cartoons, especially for an animated series that targets young child audiences.

The Effects of Foods Embedded in Entertainment Media on Children’s Food Choices and Food Intake: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses

“…The results also show that, as children grow up, they might be less persuaded by foods embedded in entertainment media [58]. In addition, it might be possible that it is the interaction of several variables that makes foods embedded in entertainment media more impactful: the combination of low nutritional value foods targeted to children younger than 9 years old [29].…”

“…In total, 1624 unique studies were identified through database searches, of which, 26 [13,22,23,26,29,30,39,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] were deemed eligible for inclusion. Compared to the studies included in similar, previous systematic reviews [62] and meta-analyses [17][18][19][20][21], the present meta-analysis contained 12 extra studies [22,23,26,29,30,49,51,52,55,56,58,60]. The PRISMA flow diagram is provided in Figure 1.…”

“…Additionally, one study reported significant effects when there was an interaction between the type of food and the childrens age: low nutritional value foods embedded in cartoons were more likely to present effects when children were younger than 9 [29].…”

“…Two of these studies inserted foods digitally (that is, subtly) [49,56], and there was another study where the mean age of the participants was approximately 12 years (that is, the older children group) [58]. Additionally, one study reported significant effects when there was an interaction between the type of food and the childrens age: low nutritional value foods embedded in cartoons were more likely to present effects when children were younger than 9 [29].…”

“…Fifth, the age of children is another variable that has been extensively studied in the literature [13,22,29,30]. Whereas some studies did not find moderating effects of children's age [13,22], others did [29,30]. In general, it is assumed that the cognitive abilities of children, as well as persuasion knowledge, improve as children age [31,32].…”