eFOOD RAP                      Volume 11, Number 6                        March 16, 2001                        Elaine Lipscomb                  Extension Graduate Assistant                   William D. Evers, PhD, RD       Cooperative Extension Foods and Nutrition Specialist     Purdue University School of Consumer and Family Sciences               Department of Foods and NutritionThe following is summarized from: The 30-second effect: An experiment revealing the impact of television commercials on food preferences of preschoolers. JADA 101:42-46, and Diminishing the effect of TV commercials on preschool-age children. JADA 101:42-46 (2001).IMPACT OF TELEVISION COMMERCIALS ON FOOD PREFERENCES OF PRESCHOOLERSThe majority of previous years' research on the impact of television advertising on children did not consider food advertisements. Therefore, researchers from Stanford University conducted a study to determine the impact of food advertisements on preferences of preschool children. The study participants were a sample from the Head Start Program in northern California. Approximately 38% (46) of the 120 eligible Head Start children participated in the research. The study was a randomized, controlled trial. According to information supplied by parents of 39 of the participating children, gender, ethnicity, media use, and socioeconomic factors were similar between the two groups. However, there was a significant difference between groups in the age of the participants. The age range for the Control group was 3-5 years and the range for the Treatment group was 2-6 years.The Control group viewed a 30-minute videotape consisting of 2 animated shorts, separated by a 2½-minute educational segment on sea creatures. The Treatment group viewed a videotape of equal length including the same animated shorts. However, the animations were edited in the middle and end to include 2 segments of 30-second commercials for products such as popular brands of juice, doughnuts, sandwich bread, remote-control toy cars, breakfast cereal, snack cake, fast-food chicken, and candy. Two of the commercials (one for juice and the other for sandwich bread) appeared twice to reflect repetition of commercials in a short viewing period. Researchers assumed that the participants had not previously viewed another two of the commercials (one for doughnuts, the other for a candy bar) because the regular market did not include northern California.Small groups of two or three children viewed either the Control or Treatment tape in a viewing room at the Head Start center while an experimenter monitored the children's comfort and attention to the videotape. After viewing the videotape, the children were interviewed by a research assistant. The research assistant placed 2 matched picture boards in front of the child and asked the child to respond either orally or by pointing to a picture of a product that the child wanted more than the other. The researchers paid special attention to using developmentally appropriate language during the interview.The researchers hypothesis was: There would be no difference between Control and Treatment groups in the selection of the advertised brand vs. the non-advertised brand. However, results indicated that the proportion of responses for advertised food items was significantly higher in the Treatment group than in the Control group except for breakfast cereal. Researchers attribute the lack of an advertisement effect on breakfast cereal to the promotion of a popular figurine on one of the cereal boxes. Furthermore, the proportion of responses for the remote control toy car also did not indicate an advertisement effect between the two groups. Researchers offered two possibilities for the observation. One possibility was that food commercials might influence short-term preferences more than toy commercials. Another possibility for the observation was that several colors of remote-control cars were advertised. This may have confused the children.The greatest proportion of responses for advertised products occurred with products that had multiple exposures (juice and sandwich bread). The participants in the Control group requested the juice and sandwich bread 48% and 44% of the time, respectively. In comparison, the participants of the Treatment group requested the juice 74% and the bread 70% of the time. Another interesting observation of the experiment was the increase in the proportion of requests for the novel products, doughnuts and candy. These products were considered novel because they are not marketed in northern California. Requests for the advertised doughnuts and candy bars in the Treatment group were twice the number of requests in the Control group.The researchers stated that their observations were consistent with those of previous observations of older children. Food preferences of preschool children tended to reflect the television commercials they viewed. As a result of their study, the researchers recommended that nutritionists and health educators should advise parents to limit their children's exposure to television commercials. Adrienne Dorf, RD, MPH, a nutrition consultant in the study, suggested that parents should act as a screen for their children, making them aware of the purpose of the commercial, and teaching them the difference between healthy and not-so healthy foods. Although childhood obesity is on the rise and dietitians are interested in the impact of television commercials on children's food preferences, a definite link between childhood obesity and television commercials cannot be established without further research.Suggestions for further research included determining if advertising effects with novel items hold across a range of content and products, and examining the mechanism of persuasion to see if children can learn to evaluate the content of advertisements. The researchers did not that since the experiment was conducted at the Head Start facility, the home television viewing experience might not have been accurately modeled. That is, the children may or may not have sat through the commercials had they viewed the animations at home. The study participants were a sample of the Head Start Program in northern California where 85% of the enrolled families have total annual incomes under $15,000. It would be an interesting study to compare the food preferences of children across socioeconomic levels. Furthermore, the researchers noted that actual product use was not measured by this study. If actual product use were measured in a future study, again it would be interesting to determine if there is a difference across socioeconomic levels.