Five minutes of advertising on garbage food (including the commercials containing only the brand) consume on average 130 kcal more per day.
Five minutes of advertising on the junk food are sufficient to add, to the meals of children and teenagers, On average 130 kcal more per daythe same contained in two slices of bread. The effect of the commercials with garbage food is so pervasive, regardless of the media that transmit them and the type of message conveyed: the advertisements only of the brand are as effective as the announcements that show the actual products.
More exposed and more fragile. These are the important results of a study just presented at the European Congress on obesity in progress in Malaga (Spain) by Emma Boyland, a marketing professor of food and health of children at the University of Liverpool (UK). Boyland explains: “Even a brief exposure to advertising of foods rich in fat, salt and sugar can lead to an excess of calorie consumption and potentially to a weight gain, especially in young people who are more sensitive to advertisements, and whose food style influences the health of all life”.
Deeper. Already several studies in the past have ascertained the existence of connections between advertising of junk food on audiovisual means and the immediate or future consumption of junk food in children and teenagers. The new job explores the impact on young people of Other means of communication (such as podcast or radio ads) and forms of advertising that include only elements that refer to the brand (for example, the logo), without directly showing food and drinks. The study also tried to clarify whether the advertising of the junk food has a different effect on children belonging to different socio -economic bands.
Choose what you want. The research involved 240 children between 7 and 15 years of the schools of Merseyside, in the United Kingdom. On two different occasions, the students were exhibited to 5 minutes of advertising Foods rich in fat, sugars and salt or advertising of products other than food. In both cases, they saw or spot containing only references to the brand, or with the actual products, e out of four different media: TV, social media, podcast, billboards).
After the exhibition, the researchers measured the intake of the food and snacks of the boys, who could freely choose what to consume for lunch, and compared it with their body mass index and with the socio -economic level, calculated based on the postal code of the students’ home.
Immediate effect. Children and young people returning from Junk Food advertisements they consumed more snacks and more dishes at the mealfor a total of 130 kcal more per day on average, between snacks and real food put on the plate, compared to the companions exposed to advertising other products. Nor the type of average on which the spot had been transmitted, nor the socio -economic status of the boys mitigated the effect of exposure to the commercials, while for each extra unit of body mass index the total consumption increased by 17 kcal.
The message comes anyway. «This is the first study to demonstrate that also the advertisements of foods including only the brandfor which there is currently no restriction policy globally, increase food consumption in children“Says Boyland. “This new discovery will help to design new, urgent restrictive policies in the marketing of food products that protect the health of the boys”.
