Food Advertisement in Fluence on Food Choice in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Food advertised television can influence children and adolescences’ food eating habits. This study aimed to examine food choices of exposed and non‑exposed children and adolescents to food advertisements on television. Both control (n = 30) and experimental (n = 30) groups were paired according to gender (50% females) and age (10.1 ± 1.4 years). Participants watched a 21‑minute cartoon interrupted by two commercial breaks that advertised eight different commercials. Control group watched toys commercials and experimental group watched food commercials. Immediately after watching videotape, pictures of advertised food item were presented with pictures of: a similar product, a healthier product and some fruit. Anova showed a significant effect of categories [F (3, 216) =126.6; p < 0.05]. Newman‑Keuls post hoc test demonstrated that advertised foods were more chosen than other products. Furthermore, the control group chose more similar products than experimental group. These data show the influence of food advertisements on children and adolescents’ food choices.

Keywords

• food publicity
• food consumption
• television
• child
• adolescent