Research - children being impressionable

According to Food Navigator, researchers at the University of Bari Adlo Moro in Italy found that 5- and 6-year-olds choose healthy foods like kiwis, carrots and tomatoes over their usual name-brand snacks if the healthy items had a sticker featuring their favorite cartoon character. Even kids who had never tried or straight-up disliked the healthier options were still swayed by the sticker. “The findings show that characters deeply influenced children’s choices in favor of healthy food,”

Foodandwine.com

While it's common for parents to encourage their children to eat healthily, a new study has revealed that primary school-aged children will reach for healthy food on their own accord, if it comes in attractive packaging.

The children were asked to choose between three identical yoghurt, fruit and cereal snacks - but the only thing that differed was the packaging designs. The first packaging design was plain, the second displayed additional health information, and the third packaging design displayed cartoon characters and an attractive product name.

To determine the participants' motivation to choose a particular snack, the researchers used a device that measured hand grip strength. This allowed them to discover the strength with which the children squeezed their hand in order to receive their desired muesli snack.

It was found that the participants' motivation was greatest for the snack with the cartoon character packaging design. The plain packaging and the packaging detailing health information were less favoured by the children.

NetDoctor.co.uk

Younger children are especially vulnerable to the marketing of unhealthy food and beverage products that use brand mascots or media characters because they have di culty distinguishing between advertising messages and factual information.17 Children develop emotional bonds with brand mascots and media characters as if they were their personal friends. ese relationships are based on the attractiveness of the brand mascots and media characters, and they can in uence children’s food choices and diet.

Childrenworldwidearetargetedbycompaniesthatuse mascots and media characters to promote branded food and beverage products to maximize sales and market share25 even though many of these products are high in added sugars, salt, and fat that contribute to poor diet quality and unhealthy weight gain.24

Mascotsandmediacharactersaretheintellectualpropertyof companies and are used in commercial licensing, franchising, and merchandising activities to build customer brand loyalty (e.g., brand awareness, trust, association, and preference) to purchase products.9,11-15,26 Figure 1 shows examples of selected brand mascots and media characters used to market food and beverage products to children.

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• Media characters can be used to promote healthy products, but they appear to be more powerful when used to market unhealthy foods and beverages.
• A systematic review23 of 11 experimental scienti c studies that examined the in uence of media characters on children’s diet- related cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes found that:

Media characters can be used as a promising strategy to increase children’s preference, choice, and intake of fruits and vegetables compared to not using characters for branding.
Even an unfamiliar cartoon character may increase children’s appetite and preference for healthy foods compared to not using a cartoon character at all.

Familiar media characters are a more powerful in uence on children’s food preferences, choices, and intake for cookies, candy, or chocolate compared to their use to promote fruits or vegetables.

Healthyeatingresearch.org