Television Food Advertising to Children: Effects on Eating Behaviour

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Jason C.G. Halford & Emma J. Boyland Biopsychology Research Group Liverpool Obesity Research Network (LORN) www.liv.ac.uk/obesity

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WHAT IS FOOD ADVERTISING?

A food advertisement can be defined as... •

...a commercial ad featuring a food, beverage, or nutritional supplement that is meant to be ingested directly or have its flavours extracted by chewing (e.g. gum) (Abbatangelo-Gray et al., 2008).

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...a part of branding activity, with a brand being defined as “a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of these, that identifies the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiates them from those of the competition” (Chang & Liu, 2009).

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...part of overall marketing activity which is dominated by television advertising but also includes internet advertising and “advergaming”, programme and event sponsorship, mobile phone advertising, viral advertising, and printed advertisements.

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TV FOOD ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN • What is being spent?

Food advertising is a multi-million dollar industry For every US $1 the WHO spends on trying to improve the nutrition of the world’s population, US $500 is spent by the food industry on promoting processed foods. Big Spenders on TV Advertising in UK (2003)

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Nielsen Media Research quoted in The Times (UK) Feb 7, 2004.

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TV FOOD ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN • What foods are being advertised?

Advertised foods are not consistent with with dietary recommendations

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Current picture – extent and nature of food advertising on UK TV in 2008 14 most popular commercial channels chosen: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

ITV Channel Four Five Nickelodeon Cartoon Network Jetix CiTV 4 Music (formerly The Hits) Smash Hits MTV Sky One Sky Sports 1 E4 Boomerang

Study Design • For each channel: • One weekday and one weekend day every month • 06:00 to 22:00 hours • Specified peak and non-peak children’s viewing times (BARB cited in Ofcom, 2003).

• Each advert coded according to pre-defined criteria

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(Kelly et al.,

2007):

• Advert product type e.g. food/drink; clothing; financial

• Each FOOD advert coded further: • • • •

Core foods e.g. bread; low sugar/high fibre breakfast cereals Non-core foods e.g. chocolate/confectionery; fast food Miscellaneous e.g. tea/coffee; supermarkets Use of a promotional character (brand equity/licensed character)

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Categorising the foods

Core foods Bread (inc. rice, pasta, noodles) Low sugar and high fibre breakfast cereals Fruit and fruit products (no added sugar) Vegetables and vegetable products (no added sugar) Low fat/reduced fat milk, yoghurt, cheese, meat and meat alternatives (not crumbed or battered) Core foods combined (inc frozen meals and sandwiches if less than 10g fat per serving) Baby foods (excl. milk formulae) Bottled water

Non-core foods High sugar/low fibre breakfast cereals Crumbed/battered meat and meat alternatives Cakes and biscuits Snack foods (e.g. crisps, cereal bars) Fruit juice and fruit drinks, frozen/fried potato products Full cream milk, yoghurt, dairy desserts, cheese, ice cream, chocolate and confectionery Fast food restaurants, High sugar/fat/salt spreads Sugar sweetened drinks and alcohol

Miscellaneous = vitamins and supplements, tea and coffee, supermarkets advertising core foods/non-core foods/non-specified e.g. for non food items or not clearly core or non-core, baby and toddler milk formulae.

Proportion of ads for food

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Types of foods advertised

Categories of foods advertised ***

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*** p < 0.001

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Examples of inter-channel variation ITV

Sky Sports One

Cartoon Network

Nickelodeon

Differences between peak and non-peak children’s viewing periods

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***

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*** p < 0.001

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Persuasive appeals used in food adverts aimed at children

TV FOOD ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN

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• Evidence for a link with childhood obesity?

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Levels of unhealthy food advertising correlate with prevalence of overweight

Lobstein & Dibb, 2005 The prevalence of overweight among school-age children correlated significantly with the number of adverts for sweet or fatty foods per 20 hours of children’s television broadcast.

Commercial viewing is a predictor of children’s obesity Zimmerman & Bell (2010) Model 1,a b (95% CI) Television viewing in 1997, h/d Commercial Noncommercial Television viewing in 2002, h/d Commercial Noncommercial Physical activity in 1997, min/d None (Ref) 1–30 > 30 Physical activity in 2002, min/d None (Ref) 1–30 > 30 Eating in front of the television in 2002 Adjusted R2

Model 2,b b (95% CI)

Model 3,c b (95% CI)

0.11**(0.00, 0.21) 0.11**(0.00, 0.21) 0.10**(0.00, 0.21) 0.03 (–0.07, 0.14) 0.03 (–0.08, 0.13) 0.04 (–0.07, 0.14)

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0.06 (–0.04, 0.16) 0.06 (–0.04, 0.16) 0.06 (–0.04, 0.17) 0.00 (–0.10, 0.11) 0.01 (–0.10, 0.11) 0.00 (–0.10, 0.11)

–0.06 (–0.34, 0.22) 0.01 (–0.21, 0.23)

–0.19 (–0.43, 0.05) 0.02 (–0.18, 0.21)

0.07

0.07

0.03 (–0.04, 0.10) 0.07

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Further evidence – commercial TV viewing and diet • Children & adolescents who watched the most TV were significantly more likely to be higher consumers of foods most commonly advertised on TV (Utter et al., 2006) • Children’s exposure to food advertising was significantly related to their consumption of advertised brands and energy-dense product categories (Buijzen et al., 2008) • 1 in 7 up to 1 in 3 obese children in the US may not have been obese in the absence of advertising of unhealthy foods on TV (Veerman et al., 2009)

• Exposure to ads for healthy foods was positively associated with reported fruit & vegetable intake (Klepp et al., 2007)

TV FOOD ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN

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• Experimental studies

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Our studies at the University of Liverpool – food advertising and actual intake Condition One

Condition Two

10 food adverts + cartoon

10 non-food adverts + cartoon

Advert recall/recognition test

Ad libitum Food Intake Measured

Height and weight measured at final visit

Low Fat

High Fat

Low Fat

High Fat

Savoury

Savoury

Sweet

Sweet

Low Energy Density

Key findings: Halford et al., 2004 Appetite • All children increased intake of SW and HFSAV foods after food ads

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• OW and OB children recognised more food than toy ads, and more food ads than NW children. • Recognition of food ads correlated with amount eaten after those ads.

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Key findings: Halford, Boyland et al., 2007 Appetite • Food advert exposure produced a significant increase in food intake in 5-7 year old children. • No effects of weight status but +ve correlation between BMI s.d. score and amount eaten after food ads. • Recognition of food ads was also related to BMI.

NW Non Food Ads

OW/OB Food ads

Key findings: Halford, Boyland et al., 2008 Public Health Nutrition • Food advert exposure increased intake in all children

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• However, the increased was greater in the obese children (155%) and the overweight children (101%) than the NW children (89%).

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The effects on adverts and celebrity on the intake of branded and unbranded crisp/chip potato snacks Aim

To study the effects of exposure to: 1.toy advert, 2.general food advert, 3.celebrity endorsed branded food product ad (crisp) 4.clip of same celebrity in usual non-advert context (‘match of the day’ football highlights)

on choice between ‘branded’ and ‘unbranded’ product (actually the same crisps). 209 children, 9-14 y (mean 11.1±1.3y). Between subjects design.

Results 1. No overall difference in total intake between conditions. All children ate significantly more of the branded crisps (36.1g v 18.7g; p