Dataset Information

Unhealthy aging? Featuring older people in television food commercials in China.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Advertising messages can affect the public as a risk or protective factor for socially disadvantaged groups, and they may reflect how characters reflect perceptions are perceived in a society. This study aimed to investigate how older people are portrayed in televised food commercials from the approach of a healthy aging perspective in contemporary Chinese society.

Methods

All televised advertising in the Ad Topic archive were screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria, and a total of 164 commercials from the years of 2016-2019 that portrayed Chinese older people were sampled. The association between the main older characters with the product categories, healthy vs. unhealthy foods, use of health claims, sex, type of spokesperson, companions, and tones and manners were included in the analysis.

Results

Older people more frequently appeared in unhealthy food products than in healthy food products. Health claims involving older adults were portrayed adequately, whereas nursing professions as companions of older adults were overlooked. Positive advertising that delivered happy, caring, or warm tones was overwhelmingly represented. Thus, the advertising messages circulated in China represent a binary stereotype model of images of older adults' characteristics that reflect ageist and the so-called agelessism, referring to the new application of the look from the approach of social psychology and marketing field.

Conclusions

This study examined aging discrimination reflected in advertisements. Studies exploring the impact of a crisis remain limited. Research is needed to improve the accuracy of advertised healthy older adults and normal aging.

SUBMITTER: Jiao W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7501497 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Unhealthy aging? Featuring older people in television food commercials in China.

Jiao Wen W Chang Angela Wen-Yu AW

International journal of nursing sciences 20200716 Suppl 1

<h4>Objectives</h4>Advertising messages can affect the public as a risk or protective factor for socially disadvantaged groups, and they may reflect how characters reflect perceptions are perceived in a society. This study aimed to investigate how older people are portrayed in televised food commercials from the approach of a healthy aging perspective in contemporary Chinese society.<h4>Methods</h4>All televised advertising in the Ad Topic archive were screened against inclusion and exclusion cr ...[more]

PMID: 32995382

Similar Datasets

Project description:Children are vulnerable to adverse effects of food advertising. Food commercials are known to increase hedonic, taste-oriented, and unhealthy food decisions. The current study examined how promoting resilience to food commercials impacted susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making in children. To promote resilience to food commercials, we utilized the food advertising literacy intervention intended to enhance cognitive skepticism and critical thinking, and decrease positive attitudes toward commercials. Thirty-six children aged 8-12 years were randomly assigned to the food advertising literacy intervention or the control condition. Eighteen children received four brief intervention sessions via video over 1 week period. In each session, children watched six food commercials with interspersed embedded intervention narratives. While watching food commercials and narratives, children were encouraged to speak their thoughts out loud spontaneously ("think-aloud"), which provided children's attitudes toward commercials. Eighteen children in the control condition had four control sessions over 1 week, and watched the same food commercials without intervention narratives while thinking aloud. The first and last sessions were held in the laboratory, and the second and third sessions were held at the children's homes. Susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making was indicated by the decision weights of taste attributes, taste perception, food choices, ad libitum snacking, and cognitive and affective attitudes toward food commercials. As hypothesized, the intervention successfully decreased susceptibility to unhealthy food decision-making evidenced by reduced decision weights of the taste in food decisions, decreased tasty perception of unhealthy foods, and increased cognitive skepticism and critical thinking toward food commercials. In addition, as children's opinions assimilated to intervention narratives, their cognitive skepticism and critical thinking toward commercials increased. The aforementioned results were not shown in the control condition. However, this brief intervention was not enough to change actual food choices or food consumption. Results of this study suggest that promoting resilience to food commercials by enhancing cognitive skepticism and critical thinking effectively reduced children's susceptibility to unhealthy food-decision making.

Project description:China's government and its people have for a long time focused on food security for its population as one of the most important issues in economic and social development. Many older people in China have lived in times when food security was not stable. Thus, while food has a central position in Chinese culture for all Chinese people, it is of particular pertinence to older people. In this paper we explore the meaning of food and eating in the lives of older Chinese people in China and how it contributes to healthy, thus happy aging. Focus groups and qualitative interviews were used in this study. Participants were recruited from the rural Yongfu Province of Southwest China, and the urban Fangzhuang and Haidan districts in Beijing. Forty-two participants were recruited aged 62-83 years of age. All focus groups and interviews were conducted in Mandarin and audiotaped with the participants' permission. Audio-tapes were transcribed by a Chinese speaking researcher and then were translated into English. Data were analyzed continuously and comparatively, transcripts were coded, and themes and sub-themes were identified. The initial analysis and interpretation were then presented and discussed at a workshop with all the authors. Two major themes emerged-the quantity of food and the quality of food required to have a happy old age. Participants discussed the desire to eat "until you are full" because of their experiences of famine during childhood. However, they also believed that as an older person they should eat less for their health, particularly less high fat foods. The importance of the food quality and food affordability was also discussed. Grain and meat were characterized as "good" foods and important in their diets for a happy old age. The participants, especially those from urban areas, were concerned with food safety. The high cultural importance of food for older Chinese in China was confirmed in this study. Social and economic lifespan experiences continue to impact on the food and eating attitudes and practices of older Chinese. The food related life experiences of older Chinese in China are quite different from younger Chinese and health promotion messaging needs to be informed by these unique perspectives in order to maximize its effectiveness.

Project description:BackgroundFood advertising is a major contributor to obesity, and fast food (FF) restaurants are top advertisers. Research on the impact of food advertising in adolescents is lacking and no prior research has investigated neural predictors of food intake in adolescents. Neural systems implicated in reward could be key to understanding how food advertising drives food intake.ObjectivesTo investigate how neural responses to both unhealthy and healthier FF commercials predict food intake in adolescents.MethodsA cross-sectional sample of 171 adolescents (aged 13-16 y) who ranged from normal weight to obese completed an fMRI paradigm where they viewed unhealthy and healthier FF and nonfood commercials. Adolescents then consumed a meal in a simulated FF restaurant where foods of varying nutritional profiles (unhealthy compared with healthier) were available.ResultsGreater neural activation in reward-related regions (nucleus accumbens, r = 0.29; caudate nucleus, r = 0.27) to unhealthy FF commercials predicted greater total food intake. Greater responses to healthier FF relative to nonfood commercials in regions associated with reward (i.e., nucleus accumbens, r = 0.24), memory (i.e., hippocampus, r = 0.32), and sensorimotor processes (i.e., anterior cerebellum, r = 0.33) predicted greater total food and unhealthier food intake, but not healthier food intake. Lower activation in neural regions associated with visual attention and salience (e.g., precuneus, r = -0.35) to unhealthy relative to healthier FF commercials predicted healthier food intake.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that FF commercials contribute to overeating in adolescents through reward mechanisms. The addition of healthier commercials from FF restaurants is unlikely to encourage healthier food intake, but interventions that reduce the ability of unhealthy FF commercials to capture attention could be beneficial. However, an overall reduction in the amount of FF commercials exposure for adolescents is likely to be the most effective approach.

Dataset Information

Unhealthy aging? Featuring older people in television food commercials in China.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Unhealthy aging? Featuring older people in television food commercials in China.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets