Master of Public Health / Kinesiology / David Dzewaltowski / Background: Childhood obesity represents a major public health problem. Increasing public and political attention has been directed towards the role of child-directed food advertising in the growth of childhood obesity. As a potential solution, scientists have begun to focus on children’s responses to advertising and on how parents can potentially modify or reduce advertising effects. This study explored the impact of food advertising on parent behavior and children's food choice and how these potential effects are moderated by household socioeconomic status (SES). Methods: Fifty-eight parent-child dyads (ages of 4-6) participated in a true experimental design where half the sample was randomized to be exposed to advertising and categorized as low income or higher income (qualified for free and reduced lunch, n = 11; paid, n = 18) and half was randomized into a control condition (qualified for free and reduced lunch, n = 12; paid, n = 17). Parents completed a questionnaire, viewed a cartoon with energy dense (ED) food commercials or control commercials with their children, and children subsequently choose either an energy dense food or a fruit or vegetable. Throughout the experiment parent and child behavior was videotaped. Binary logistic regression was conducted to examine the impact of advertising and household SES on parent behaviors and children’s food choice. Results: Advertisements had no effect on food choice. More low-income children chose a fruit or vegetable over an energy dense food (OR = 5.8), regardless of whether or not they were exposed to advertising (p<.05). Parents were more likely to be uninvolved in mediating children’s food choice when they were not exposed to advertising. Parents were also less likely to agree to energy dense foods after being exposed to energy dense food advertising compared to control advertising. However, SES moderated the advertising-parental practice effect for parental agreement to an ED food. After exposure to food advertising, more low-income parents agreed to an energy dense food compared to higher income parents. (p<.05). Conclusion: This study has demonstrated a link between advertising exposure and parenting behavior. Results suggest that this relationship may be moderated by socioeconomic status. This encouraging result may indicate that low-income parents are unaware of the various ways advertising could influence their children. Thus, future attempts should be made to investigate whether interventions that target parent-child communication strategies may empower parents to effectively curb unwanted advertising effects in children.

Advertising to children has received regular focus since 1961, yet it remains a controversial topic. When people speak about advertising to children, they are frequently discussing food advertising. Recent concerns about food, nutrition and an increase in childhood obesity have resulted in a resurgence of interest towards advertising to children. Many factors contribute to the rise in childhood obesity; and advertising of unhealthy food to children has been recognised as one such factor. Advertising to children is fraught with ethical concerns. Children are considered to be vulnerable and susceptible to the influence of television advertising, since they do not possess the cognitive ability to comprehend or evaluate the advertisements they enjoy watching. Although there is ample research regarding the advertising of food to children, research on how parents perceive the impact of television food advertising on their children?s food preferences, as well as the overall level of parental concern with regard to this issue is limited. This study, aimed at exploring South African parents' perceptions of television food advertising to children, is in context of the widespread concern about TV food advertising, the increasing incident of obesity among children and a number of initiatives in other countries to limit children?s exposure to food advertising. A literature review was undertaken, which gave rise to the identification of the problem statement and objectives. Following the literature review, an empirical study was conducted with the aid of a questionnaire, as measuring instrument, to identify parents' perceptions of TV food advertising to children, in particular, parents with children aged between 3 and 14 years. The empirical study was conducted at a crèche in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. The empirical research conducted for this study revealed that parents perceive it to be unacceptable for food to be advertised to children during their TV-viewing hours, in particular unhealthy food, and that advertising does influence their children's food preferences and eating habits. Parents believe that although regulations exist, these are ineffective in protecting children against advertisers. Furthermore, although parents are not in favour of banning all food advertising to children, they would like to see a reduction of food advertising to children and stronger restrictions being applied to TV food advertising during children?s viewing hours. As an outcome of the parents being exposed to the survey questionnaire, their awareness to the topic will be a lot greater than before. It would be interesting to see if those parents' perceptions have changed as a result of the heightened awareness and therefore it is recommended that the survey be repeated on the same parents within the next year. Furthermore, since the results obtained from this study is a representation of the perceptions of the parents from the geographical area of Vanderbijlpark, South Africa; it is recommended that this survey be conducted in other geographical areas around South Africa. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Advertising to children has received regular focus since 1961, yet it remains a controversial topic. When people speak about advertising to children, they are frequently discussing food advertising. Recent concerns about food, nutrition and an increase in childhood obesity have resulted in a resurgence of interest towards advertising to children. Many factors contribute to the rise in childhood obesity; and advertising of unhealthy food to children has been recognised as one such factor. Advertising to children is fraught with ethical concerns. Children are considered to be vulnerable and susceptible to the influence of television advertising, since they do not possess the cognitive ability to comprehend or evaluate the advertisements they enjoy watching. Although there is ample research regarding the advertising of food to children, research on how parents perceive the impact of television food advertising on their children?s food preferences, as well as the overall level of parental concern with regard to this issue is limited. This study, aimed at exploring South African parents' perceptions of television food advertising to children, is in context of the widespread concern about TV food advertising, the increasing incident of obesity among children and a number of initiatives in other countries to limit children?s exposure to food advertising. A literature review was undertaken, which gave rise to the identification of the problem statement and objectives. Following the literature review, an empirical study was conducted with the aid of a questionnaire, as measuring instrument, to identify parents' perceptions of TV food advertising to children, in particular, parents with children aged between 3 and 14 years. The empirical study was conducted at a crèche in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. The empirical research conducted for this study revealed that parents perceive it to be unacceptable for food to be advertised to children during their TV-viewing hours, in particular unhealthy food, and that advertising does influence their children's food preferences and eating habits. Parents believe that although regulations exist, these are ineffective in protecting children against advertisers. Furthermore, although parents are not in favour of banning all food advertising to children, they would like to see a reduction of food advertising to children and stronger restrictions being applied to TV food advertising during children?s viewing hours. As an outcome of the parents being exposed to the survey questionnaire, their awareness to the topic will be a lot greater than before. It would be interesting to see if those parents' perceptions have changed as a result of the heightened awareness and therefore it is recommended that the survey be repeated on the same parents within the next year. Furthermore, since the results obtained from this study is a representation of the perceptions of the parents from the geographical area of Vanderbijlpark, South Africa; it is recommended that this survey be conducted in other geographical areas around South Africa. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Scant research on food advertising and purchase decisions has examined the moderating role of social constructs such as power. In this research, I investigate how consumers’ sense of power influences the persuasiveness of message assertiveness in food advertising. The agentic–communal framework of sense of power and findings suggests that high-power individuals are more likely to adopt and be receptive to strong, competent information and communication strategies than low-power individuals in interpersonal communication. In this research, I propose a new theoretical framework that predicts how message recipients’ sense of power enables or weakens the persuasiveness of the assertive message such as, “You must buy [the name of the advertised food].” More specifically, I looked at the likelihood of purchasing ‘vice’ versus ‘virtue' foods after viewing the ad. I argue that for high-power individuals, an assertive tone in the food ads would increase the purchase of a vice food and decrease the purchase intent of a virtue food. However, for low-power individuals, an assertive tone in the food ads would decrease the purchase of a vice food but increase the purchase intent of a virtue food. Low power is less congruent with assertive messages but more congruent with non-assertive messages. Across three studies, I provide empirical support for the predictions and the congruence mechanism. The results show that high-power consumers process assertive messages more fluently than non-assertive messages. Low-power consumers process assertive messages less fluently than non-assertive messages. Processing fluency increases the relative focus on tastiness in food evaluation, but process dis-fluency increases the relative focus on healthiness in food evaluation. The findings of this research have important implications for developing effective marketing communications and promoting healthy eating.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 29, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-72).

abstract: There have been multiple calls for research on consumers' responses to social issues, regulatory changes, and corporate behavior. Thus, this dissertation proposes and tests a conceptual framework of parents' responses to government regulations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) that address juvenile obesity. This research builds on Attribution Theory to examine the impact of government regulations and CSR on consumers' attitudes and their subsequent behavior. Three pilot studies and three main experiments were conducted; a between-subjects and randomized experimental design being used to capture the effects of regulations and corporate actions on product satisfaction, company evaluations, and behavioral intentions, while examining the mediating role of attributions of responsibility for a negative product outcome. This research has implications for policy makers and marketing practitioners and scholars. This is the first study to offer a new perspective, based on attributions of blame, to explain the mechanism that drives consumers' responses to government regulations. Considering numerous calls for government actions that address childhood obesity, it is important to understand how and why consumers respond to such regulations. The results illustrated that certain policies may have unintended consequences due to unexpected attributions of blame for unhealthy products. Only recently have researchers tried to address the psychological mechanism through which CSR has an impact on consumers' attitudes and behavior. To date, few studies have investigated attributions as a mediating variable in the transfer of CSR associations on consumer responses. Nonetheless, this is the first study that concentrates on attributions of responsibility, per se, to explain the impact of CSR on company evaluations. This dissertation extends previous research, where locus, stability, and controllability mediated the relationship between CSR and attributions of blame; the degree of blame being consequential to brand evaluations. The current results suggest that attributions of responsibility, per se, mediate the impact of CSR on company evaluations. Additionally, attributions of blame are measured as the degree to which consumers take personal responsibility for a negative product outcome. This highlights a new role of the CSR construct, as a moderator of consumers' self-serving bias, a fundamental psychological response that has been neglected in the marketing literature. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2013

Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo de corte transversal desenvolvido com escolares de uma escola pública da periferia urbana da cidade de Garanhuns- PE. Teve como objetivo compreender relações entre comportamento alimentar em crianças e a exposição a propagandas de alimentos veiculadas pela televisão. Participaram 27 crianças entre 7 e 9 anos de idade, das 29 matriculadas no início do ano (duas abandonaram a escola), tendo os cuidadores principais (mãe, pai ou avós) como informantes-chave. Cada criança teve oportunidade de responder a um questionário individual, pré-testado e adaptado para a cultura local; fazer um desenho e participar de uma conversa com a pesquisadora. Os familiares narraram práticas e preferências alimentares em diálogo semi-estruturado em horário sugerido e negociado com a direção da escola. A pesquisa foi aprovada pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da FSP/USP. Pode-se, como resultado, aprofundar a compreensão de como a publicidade diretamente veiculada e indiretamente transmitida- como parte do cenário- de alimentos interfere na culinária familiar e nas opções alimentares das crianças. Neste sentido, o cardápio familiar, com muitas variações, incorpora alimentos veiculados pela televisão com predominância de alimentos processados de baixo valor nutricional sob o aspecto qualitativo (nutrientes). O estudo corrobora os dados da Pesquisa de Orçamento Familiar (2008-2009) que aponta a transição nutricional em crianças como desafio das políticas públicas contemporâneas / This is a qualitative study of the cross-sectional design with students and their families in a suburban public school of the town of Garanhuns-PE. Aimed to study relationships between eating childrens behavior and exposure to food advertisements broadcast on television. Actively participated in 27 children between 7 and 9 years old and their primary caregivers (mother, father or grandparent) of 29 enrolled at the beginning of the year (two dropped out of school). Each child had chance to answer to a questionnaire individual, daily pre-tested and adapted for the local culture; to make a drawing and to participate of a colloquy with the researcher. The familiar ones had told practices and food preferences in dialogue halfstructuralized in schedule suggested and negotiated with the board of the school. The research was approved by the Committee of Ethics in Research of the FSP/USP. It can, as resulted, to deepen the understanding of how advertising directly or indirectly conveyed, transmitted as part of the scenario-food intervenes with the family cooking and food choices of children. In this sense, the familiar menu, with some variations, incorporates advertised foods on television with a predominance of processed foods with low nutritional value. The study corroborates data from the Brazilian Household Budget Surveys POF (2008-2009) that contemporaries point the nutritional transition in children as challenge of the public politics

Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo de corte transversal desenvolvido com escolares de uma escola pública da periferia urbana da cidade de Garanhuns- PE. Teve como objetivo compreender relações entre comportamento alimentar em crianças e a exposição a propagandas de alimentos veiculadas pela televisão. Participaram 27 crianças entre 7 e 9 anos de idade, das 29 matriculadas no início do ano (duas abandonaram a escola), tendo os cuidadores principais (mãe, pai ou avós) como informantes-chave. Cada criança teve oportunidade de responder a um questionário individual, pré-testado e adaptado para a cultura local; fazer um desenho e participar de uma conversa com a pesquisadora. Os familiares narraram práticas e preferências alimentares em diálogo semi-estruturado em horário sugerido e negociado com a direção da escola. A pesquisa foi aprovada pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da FSP/USP. Pode-se, como resultado, aprofundar a compreensão de como a publicidade diretamente veiculada e indiretamente transmitida- como parte do cenário- de alimentos interfere na culinária familiar e nas opções alimentares das crianças. Neste sentido, o cardápio familiar, com muitas variações, incorpora alimentos veiculados pela televisão com predominância de alimentos processados de baixo valor nutricional sob o aspecto qualitativo (nutrientes). O estudo corrobora os dados da Pesquisa de Orçamento Familiar (2008-2009) que aponta a transição nutricional em crianças como desafio das políticas públicas contemporâneas / This is a qualitative study of the cross-sectional design with students and their families in a suburban public school of the town of Garanhuns-PE. Aimed to study relationships between eating childrens behavior and exposure to food advertisements broadcast on television. Actively participated in 27 children between 7 and 9 years old and their primary caregivers (mother, father or grandparent) of 29 enrolled at the beginning of the year (two dropped out of school). Each child had chance to answer to a questionnaire individual, daily pre-tested and adapted for the local culture; to make a drawing and to participate of a colloquy with the researcher. The familiar ones had told practices and food preferences in dialogue halfstructuralized in schedule suggested and negotiated with the board of the school. The research was approved by the Committee of Ethics in Research of the FSP/USP. It can, as resulted, to deepen the understanding of how advertising directly or indirectly conveyed, transmitted as part of the scenario-food intervenes with the family cooking and food choices of children. In this sense, the familiar menu, with some variations, incorporates advertised foods on television with a predominance of processed foods with low nutritional value. The study corroborates data from the Brazilian Household Budget Surveys POF (2008-2009) that contemporaries point the nutritional transition in children as challenge of the public politics

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissSLS.pdf: 855470 bytes, checksum: d7bf0e57dca07794826fee52ee5daa27 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-02-27 / Food advertising and it effect on the food choices has been the target of frequent debates, being attributed to a great part of the responsibility for the problems of bad feeding of the population. Such situation has led to government initiatives with the aim to discipline the food advertising, mainly those destined to children. These initiatives can have important consequences on the promotion strategies of the food sector. The present work had as main objective to investigate the frequency and content of the food commercials on television, considering the strategies adopted in relation to the characteristics of the message, the food, the consumer and the appeals, as well as the execution or not of ethical norms of advertising. Therefore, the programming of three open TV channels was recorded during the morning, afternoon and night at preestablished schedules and then used in the content analysis. The results pointed to the prevalence of food commercials in the morning mainly for children advertising mostly products rich in sugar and fat. It was verified that the messages are fundamentally affectionate, with emphasis on the flavor of the food and the pleasure with little reference to the nutritional aspects and health. Great part of the commercials also presented debatable elements regarding to the ethics. At the end of the work, considerations are made about the need of the analysis of the food choice in a wider context, considering the advertising just one of the influence variables. It is considered that only joint actions of the public and private sector are capable to aid in the promotion of healthier food habits. / A propaganda de alimentos e sua influência nas escolhas alimentares tem sido alvo de discussões freqüentes, sendo atribuída a ela grande parte da responsabilidade pelos problemas de má alimentação da população. Tal situação tem levado a iniciativas governamentais que visam disciplinar as propagandas de alimentos, principalmente aquelas destinadas ao público infantil. Essas iniciativas podem trazer conseqüências importantes para as ações promocionais do setor alimentício. Este trabalho teve como principal objetivo investigar a freqüência e o conteúdo de comerciais de alimentos veiculados na televisão, considerando as estratégias adotadas em relação às características da mensagem, do alimento, do consumidor e dos apelos, bem como o cumprimento ou não de normas éticas da publicidade. Para tanto, foram gravadas as programações de três emissoras de canal aberto nos períodos da manhã, tarde e noite em horários pré-estabelecidos, sendo utilizado como método a análise de conteúdo. Os resultados apontaram a prevalência de comerciais de alimentos no período da manhã, voltados principalmente ao público infantil, sendo a maioria destes produtos ricos em açúcares e gorduras. Constatou-se que as mensagens são fundamentalmente afetivas, com ênfase no sabor dos alimentos e no prazer, havendo pouca referência aos aspectos nutricionais e de saúde.Grande parte dos comerciais também apresentou elementos discutíveis quanto à questão ética. Ao final do trabalho, são feitas considerações sobre a necessidade da análise da escolha alimentar dentro de um contexto mais amplo, sendo a propaganda apenas uma das variáveis de influência. Considera-se que somente ações conjuntas, de ordem pública e privada, são capazes de auxiliar na promoção de hábitos alimentares mais saudáveis.

In light of recent persuasive appeals which promote a food product's health or nutritional benefits in advertisements, this exploratory study investigates the ways in which individuals read and understand health and nutrition-related claims in advertising and make subsequent judgments about the product, brand, and purchase intentions. Using the Elaboration-Likelihood model of persuasion, this study looks at how motivational (e.g., health consciousness, need for cognition) and ability (nutrition knowledge) factors influence attitudes toward three food products following exposure to manipulated advertisements containing a nutrition-related claim. Although the results do not demonstrate much support for the predicted relationships, the findings nonetheless provide researchers useful information that may benefit future studies. / Master of Arts