If you left it to the kids to buy their cereal, which one do you think they’d go for? The dull old generic pack or the one with Tigger?
Pooh and friends - Disney
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Today more than ever, children are being targeted by and exposed to cereal advertising from an early age by cereal companies boasting staggering marketing budgets ($1.5 million way back in 2009 statistics). Here is what 3 independent studies reveal about the marketing tactics that may make kids beg for their sugary cereals each morning:
A 2011 study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania offered a group of 5-6 year old children four ‘new’ cereal boxes; each box displaying a slightly different theme:
- with a licensed cartoon character
- without a licensed cartoon character
- healthy cereal message
- ‘sugary’ cereal message
children who were given the cereal labelled ‘Healthy Bits’ reported liking it more than those who ate the same cereal under the name ‘Sugar Bits’
The report did suggest that perhaps parents had already educated their children about how bad too much sugar was for them and for their teeth, however, the report then went on to say that:
the presence of licensed characters on packaging potentially overrides children’s assessment of nutritional merit.
Another study in 2010 was conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics involving children between the ages of 4 and 6 who were asked to taste and rate 3 different foods:
- Graham crackers
- Gummy fruit snacks
- Carrots (yes, carrots)
Each food category was offered to the child on two separate plates: one plate without a licensed cartoon character – the other with.
The study’s findings on the taste experiment revealed that up to 87.5% of the children preferred the taste of the item displaying the cartoon character in every category (even carrots) 😉
And back in 2005 a similar studywas conducted by the Sesame Workshop to see if ‘The Muppets’ from ‘Sesame Street’ influenced children’s food choices. Here is what they had to say.
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For example, in the control group (no characters on either food) 78 percent of children participating in the study chose a chocolate bar over broccoli, whereas 22 percent chose the broccoli. However, when an Elmo sticker was placed on the broccoli and an unknown character was placed on the chocolate bar, 50 percent chose the chocolate bar and 50 percent chose the broccoli. Such outcomes suggest that the Sesame Streetcharacters could play a strong role in increasing the appeal of healthy foods.
We can obviously see there’s a trend for preferring food categories displaying licensed cartoon characters of some sort, but would putting these cartoon character stickers on healthy food products really work? Can the local broccoli (or other) industry really afford to put up the big advertising dollars without making healthier options unaffordable for families?
Photo by iStockphoto
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Related Links:
Sesame Workshop: “If Elmo eats broccoli, will kids eat it too?”
Hi Sugar! 
This is so true and really of great concern. It doesn’t explain my own tendency to buy unhealthy foods though! 😀
Here’s an unusual idea. What if we were to re-educate the adults to go food shopping without the children. Would that change buying habits? How much of the ‘targeting to children’ is actually ‘targeting adults’ ? Surely all these products may be aimed at children, but it’s normally still the parent who does the buying.
(Apart from those kids who walk six kms in the snow, up a hill, to the local dairy, to milk a cow, to get milk for the family – I know a LOT of people who claimed they had to do this each day LOL)
Pester Power….I see (and hear) it every time I go shopping. Poor mum/dads dragging little tantrum-throwing (most times screaming) sons and daughters down the aisle past the toy or lolly section, and its not just the little ones. Kids in school uniform persistently pleading for the same thing over and over with the hope of wearing poor old mum down. Some mothers eventually give up – perhaps feeling guilty that they don’t spend enough time with them. I’ve even seen a cool-headed mum leave her trolley behind and simply take the child home (as punishment perhaps). The ones at the check-out are the funniest though. I’ve seen pester power at its best – time to really embarass mum/dad. Its when I pull funny faces at the kid/s (behind their parent’s back of course) and the reaction I get that really makes it all worth while. lol!
I guess it’s not always possible to leave the little angels behind if there’s no extended family support – and like you say December, it is about the re-education of the adults in the end that could possibly break the cycle.
Since creating this exploratory blog I find myself spending far too much time down the supermarket aisle suspicious of every cereal box or nutritional label. I’m surprised staff haven’t confiscated my camera 😉