Sugar as Part of a Balanced Breakfast? What Cereal Advertisements Teach Children About Healthy Eating

Abstract

Marketing that targets children with energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods is a likely contributor to the childhood obesity crisis. High-sugar ready-to-eat cereals are the packaged food most frequently promoted in child-targeted food advertising on television. The authors combined content analysis of product nutritional quality and messages presented in cereal television advertisements with syndicated data on exposure to those ads. The analysis quantifies children's exposure to specific products and messages that appear in advertisements and compares it with adult exposure. Children viewed 1.7 ads per day for ready-to-eat cereals, and 87% of those ads promoted high-sugar products; adults viewed half as many ads, and ads viewed were equally likely to promote high- and low-sugar cereals. In addition, the messages presented in high-sugar ads viewed by children were significantly more likely to convey unrealistic and contradictory messages about cereal attributes and healthy eating. For example, 91% of high-sugar cereal ads viewed by children ascribed extraordinary powers to these products, and 67% portrayed healthy and unhealthy eating behaviors. Given children's vulnerability to the influence of advertising, the emotional and mixed messages used to promote high-sugar cereals are confusing and potentially misleading.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Rudd Foundation.

Notes

*Variables with very low or no occurrence did not receive a kappa value. Individual items within the categories are not represented here; however, coder agreement ranged from 98% to 100% for such code items.

**High-sugar ads versus low-sugar ads; signifies that the message appears in a disproportionately high number of high- or low-sugar ads compared with the number of high- and low-sugar ads.

*Time period: January 2008 through March 2009.

**Not mutually exclusive.

***Mutually exclusive.