Investigating the Effect of Use and Social Cues in Food Advertisements on Attention, Feelings of Social Support, and Purchase Intention

ABSTRACT

In an effort to understand how different types of food cues in food ads are automatically encouraging unhealthy eating behaviors, the current study examined how the presence of actual food consumption behaviors (use cues) and presence of multiple individuals indorsing food products (social cues) in fast food ads would influence individual attentional and behavioral responses. A use cue (2) x social cue (2) x repetition (3) fully within-subjects factorial design experiment with young adults (N = 164) was conducted. Findings demonstrated that participants paid greater attention to the fast food ads which contained multiple people (group cue) eating the advertised food products (use cue) when compared to other types of fast food ads. In addition, participants also self-reported greater social support and purchase intention when seeing use and group cues in ads. Understanding how these cues function in food advertising to encourage unhealthy eating may help health practitioners and individuals create more helpful intervention strategies. Further, applying these marketing tactics to ads for food products that are healthier (i.e., less energy dense and more nutrient dense) may help to maximize healthy food palatability, thereby increasing motivation for viewers to make autonomous decisions about eating healthier.