March 2015

Children’s Recall of Fast Food Television Advertising—Testing the Adequacy of Food Marketing Regulation

There is increasing concern that food advertising shapes the way children eat and contributes to childhood obesity. The fast food companies McDonald’s and Burger King participate in industry self-regulation, pledging to not engage in deceptive marketing and to market foods and beverages that meet certain nutritional criteria in children’s advertising. This study gauged the net More

March 2014

Children’s Reaction to Depictions of Healthy Foods in Fast-Food Television Advertisements

This paper examines how young children interpret depictions of healthy foods (milk and apples) in television advertisements by McDonalds’s and Burger King aired from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. A sample of 99 children ages 3 to 7 were shown two still images drawn from advertisements for healthy meals at McDonald’s and Burger More

August 2013

How Television Fast Food Marketing Aimed at Children Compares with Adult Advertisements

This article compares quick-service restaurant (QSR) television advertisements for children’s meals with adult advertisements from the same company to assess whether companies were complying with their self-regulatory pledges. Researchers coded nationally televised advertisements for visual and audio assessments of branding, toy premiums, movie tie-ins, and depictions of food. They found that almost all of the More

November 2011

Studying How Children Themselves Perceive Advertising on Television for Kids Meals

Some legal scholars suggest that kids’ meal advertising constitutes false advertising because of its emphasis on toy premiums and movie tie-ins rather than food. Yet no one has assessed how the target population perceives such advertising. This study examines whether the emphasis on toy premiums and tie-ins in such ads misleads children to primarily associate More