Does a 'protective' message reduce the impact of an advergame promoting unhealthy foods to children? An experimental study in Spain and The Netherlands

The weight of evidence points to the advertising of food affecting food consumption, especially among children. Such advertising often promotes unhealthy foods. Current policy deliberations focus on developing effective "protective" messages to increase advertising literacy and consequent scepticism about advertising targeting children. This study examined whether incorporating a "protective" message in an advergame promoting energy-dense snacks would reduce children's snack intake. A randomized between-subject design was conducted in the Netherlands (N = 215) and Spain (N = 382) with an adver... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Folkvord, Frans
Lupiáñez-Villanueva, Francisco
Codagnone, Cristiano
Bogliacino, Francesco
Veltri, Giuseppe Alessandro
Gaskell, George
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
Verlag/Hrsg.: Appetite
Schlagwörter: childhood obesity / food advertisements / protective message / food intake / anuncios de comida / mensaje de protección / ingesta alimentaria / obesidad infantil / anuncis de menjar / ingesta alimentària / obesitat infantil / Children -- Nutrition / Infants -- Alimentació / Niños -- Alimentación
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26831173
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/10609/93049

The weight of evidence points to the advertising of food affecting food consumption, especially among children. Such advertising often promotes unhealthy foods. Current policy deliberations focus on developing effective "protective" messages to increase advertising literacy and consequent scepticism about advertising targeting children. This study examined whether incorporating a "protective" message in an advergame promoting energy-dense snacks would reduce children's snack intake. A randomized between-subject design was conducted in the Netherlands (N = 215) and Spain (N = 382) with an advergame promoting either energy-dense snacks or nonfood products. The results showed that playing an advergame promoting energy-dense snacks increased caloric intake in both countries, irrespective of whether the "protective" message was present or not. These results point to the limitations of "protective" messages and advertising literacy and provide policy makers with a rationale for extending the current prohibition of food advertising to young children in the terrestrial media to online environments.