WFA has learnt from the French Advertiser Association (UDA) that the French government has awarded Missouri State University (MSU) $262,000 to support an international analysis of marketing’s influence on childhood obesity. The three-year Marketing to Children and Obesity (MARCO) Project brings together researchers from MSU, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and researchers in Belgium, France and Tunisia, to analyze how food advertising affects children’s thoughts and behaviors. Researchers will also study how children make food decisions, whether children’s attitudes become desires, and how parents affect children’s food choices in and outside the home. Researchers hope the study will identify new ways to use marketing to prevent childhood obesity and promote healthy habits. For more information, visit the RWJF Program Area Website.  

 

We have also learnt from the Advertising Education Forum (www.aeforum.org) that the study will start in summer 2008 and the lead researcher will be Joel Bree, who is a member of the AEF Academic Network. He will be assisted by Dr. Diana Haytko, associate professor of marketing at Missouri State University and Dr. Cathy Curran-Kelly of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, as well as researchers from Belgium and Tunisia.

 

The study’s scope is to understand how marketing could be used as a positive tool to tackle the problem of childhood obesity: “We will work to gain an understanding of marketing as an antecedent of childhood obesity and in the way it may become a tool to combat the epidemic. It is hoped that the research will uncover ways to use marketing to children to promote healthy eating habits, as opposed to the traditional children’s advertising focused on nutritionally poor food choices,” Haytko said.  

 

The three-year project will utilise both qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys of children around the world. Some of the questions to be studied include:  

 

- What is the impact of food advertisements on children’s cognitive, affective and behavioral responses?

- Do children’s attitudes turn into desires?

- What are the responses to advertisements promoting a nutritionally healthy product?

- How do children arbitrate their food choices?

- How do parents influence food choices both at home and away?  

 

AEF will contact Joel Bree for more details and review how industry may be able to contribute to the process. WFA will keep all members informed as to relevant developments.

 

For more information please contact w.gilroy@wfanet.org