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The impact of a cartoon character on adults perceptions of Children's breakfast cereals: a randomized experiment.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Cartoon characters on processed food packaging increase the perception of product preference among children, but their effect among adults has rarely been examined. We evaluated the effect of a cartoon character on breakfast cereals on beliefs about buying them for children, as well as whether demographic characteristics modified this effect. METHODS:An experimental study was conducted with adults from online consumer panels in Mexico (n?=?3755). Participants were randomly assigned to a "cartoon" condition (n?=?1789), in which they viewed a breakfast cereal box with a Minion character on the front of the package, or the "control" condition (n?=?1966), in which the same cereal box was displayed with no character on the package. Participants were asked: "Is this a good cereal to buy children?" with the response options "Yes", "No", or "Don't know". Multinomial adjusted logistic models regressed responses to this question (Yes?=?0, No?=?1, 2?=?Don't know) on experimental condition. Differences in the effect of the cartoon character across demographic characteristics were tested by introducing multiplicative interaction terms. RESULTS:The adjusted model showed that participants in the "cartoon character" condition were 1.67 (1.45-1.94) times more likely to consider the cereal as being "Not good to buy for children" than those in the control condition (p?

SUBMITTER: Contreras-Manzano A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7232833 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of a cartoon character on adults perceptions of Children's breakfast cereals: a randomized experiment.

Contreras-Manzano Alejandra A Jáuregui Alejandra A Nieto Claudia C Hall Marissa G MG Vargas-Meza Jorge J Thrasher James F JF Illescas-Zárate Daniel D Barquera Simón S Hammond David D

Nutrition journal 20200517 1

<h4>Background</h4>Cartoon characters on processed food packaging increase the perception of product preference among children, but their effect among adults has rarely been examined. We evaluated the effect of a cartoon character on breakfast cereals on beliefs about buying them for children, as well as whether demographic characteristics modified this effect.<h4>Methods</h4>An experimental study was conducted with adults from online consumer panels in Mexico (n = 3755). Participants were rando ...[more]

PMID: 32418538

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Project description:BackgroundThe incorporation of narratives helps to enhance children's engagement in active video games (AVGs), thus increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Specific narrative elements, such as the visual representation of the characters' body shape, have been rarely manipulated to explore their role in modulating children's narrative engagement (NE) and exercise motivation.ObjectiveTo investigate the effects of character body shape manipulation (overweight/obese, average, or athletic slim) on children's narrative immersion (NI), NE, wishful identification (WI), as well as their mediating effect on AVG and PA motivation.MethodsChildren ages 8-12 years old (N = 87) were randomly assigned to watch a 15-min animated video (designed for an existing AVG) in which the main characters had an overweight/obese, or average∗, or athletic slim body shape (all other elements were identical). Children's NI, NE, WI, and AVG and physical activity (PA) motivation were then assessed.ResultsControlling for social desirability, the analysis indicated that participants with a BMI of greater than the 75th percentile had a significantly higher NI, NE, WI, and PA motivation when video characters were set to the overweight/obese condition, than they did for video characters set to the average or athletic slim conditions. On the other hand, children of equal or less than the 75th percentile exposed to the average character body condition had a greater NE, WI, and PA motivation than overweight/obese or athletic slim conditions. A mediation analysis with structural equation modeling indicated that NE mediated the effect between character body shape and AVG and PA motivation.ConclusionNarrative cartoon characters that mirror the target participant's body shape can increase NE, which in turn mediates AVG and PA motivation. Content producers should identify optimal strategies in character body shape design to encourage children of different weight status to participate in PA with engaging stories to maximize health narratives' persuasive potentials.∗The term average in this sense is not in reference to the national average body weight, but rather an average of the body weights represented in conditions A and C.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labeling is a cost-effective strategy to help consumers make informed and healthier food choices. We aimed to investigate the effect of the FOP labels used in the Latin American region on consumers' shopping intentions when prompted to make their choices with specific nutrients-to-limit in mind among low- and middle-income Mexican adults (> 18 y). METHODS:In this experimental study of an online simulated shopping situation participants (n = 2194) were randomly assigned to one of three labeling conditions: Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA), Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL), or red Warning Labels (WL). Participants were required to view a video explaining how to correctly interpret the assigned label. Primary outcomes were the overall nutritional quality (estimated using the Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion [NPSC] and NPSC baseline score) and mean energy and nutrient content of purchases. Secondary outcomes included shopping time variables. We also evaluated the impact of the labels across food categories (ready-made foods, dairy beverages, non-dairy beverages, salty snacks, and breakfast cereals) and sociodemographic subgroups. RESULTS:The MTL and the WL led to a better overall nutritional quality of the shopping cart compared to the GDA (p < 0.05). According to the NPSC score, the WL led to a better nutritional quality across breakfast cereals and salty snacks compared to the GDA (p < 0.05); a similar effect was observed for the MTL among non-dairy beverages (p < 0.05). The MTL and the WL required shorter shopping times compared to GDA (p < 0.05). Across all labeling conditions, the nutritional quality of the shopping cart tended to be lower among those with low income, education and nutrition knowledge levels. CONCLUSION:WL and MTL may foster healthier food choices in a faster way among low- and middle-income groups in Mexico. To produce an equitable impact among consumers of all socioeconomic strata, efforts beyond simply the inclusion of a communication campaign on how to use and interpret FOP labels will be required. TRIAL REGISTRATION:clinicaltrials.gov. NCT04308408 Retrospectively registered March 16, 2020.

Dataset Information

The impact of a cartoon character on adults perceptions of Children's breakfast cereals: a randomized experiment.

Publications

The impact of a cartoon character on adults perceptions of Children's breakfast cereals: a randomized experiment.

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