The 30-Second Effect: An Experiment Revealing the Impact of Television Commercials on Food Preferences of Preschoolers

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Abstract

Objective To examine whether televised food commercials influence preschool children's food preferences.

Design In this randomized, controlled trial, preschool children viewed a videotape of a popular children's cartoon either with or without embedded commercials. Children were then asked to identify their preferences from pairs of similar products, one of which was advertised in the videotape with embedded commercials. Preschoolers' parents were interviewed to determine children's demographic characteristics and media use patterns.

Subjects Forty-six 2- to 6-year-olds from a Head Start program in northern California. Statistical analyses For demographic and media use characteristics, univariate data were examined and Student t and χ2 tests were used to test for differences between the control and treatment groups. We calculated the Cochran Q statistic to assess whether the proportion of those choosing advertised food items was significantly higher in the treatment group than in the control group.

Results Children exposed to the videotape with embedded commercials were significantly more likely to choose the advertised items than children who saw the same videotape without commercials (Qdiff=8.13, df=l, P <.01).

Conclusions/applications Even brief exposures to televised food commercials can influence preschool children's food preferences. Nutritionists and health educators should advise parents to limit their preschooler's exposure to television advertisements. Furthermore, advocates should raise the public policy issue of advertising and young children, especially given the recent epidemic of childhood obesity and the ever-changing media environment. J Am Diet Assoc. 2001;101:42–46.

Section snippets

Subjects

Participants were preschool children attending a Head Start program in northern California. According to program statistics, 85% of the families enrolled in this program had total annual household incomes under $15,000.

The study was announced during an obligatory parent meeting at the Head Start program and all children were eligible. Research assistants approached parents during drop-off and pick-up times and offered them written and oral information about the study in English and Spanish. No

Results

Forty-six children participated in the experiment and interviews were completed with 39 of these children's parents. Participating children were similar to nonparticipating children (other children in the Head Start program) in gender, age, ethnicity, and highest education level of parent or guardian. The 7 children with no parental data did not differ significantly from the other 39 in gender or age (based on information provided by the participating children).

Of the 39 participating children,

Discussion

That television food commercials have immediate effects on children's short-term food preferences. Based on a 1990 law passed by Congress, commercials are limited in children's programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and not more than 12 minutes per hour on weekdays (19), (20). Our findings suggest that it takes only 1 or 2 exposures to a 10- to 30-second food commercial to influence 2- through 6-year-olds' short-term preferences for specific food products. This has important

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