Does Food Advertising Influence People’s Food Preferences?

Abstract

This chapter critically reviews empirical evidence concerning the influences of food advertising on consumers’ food preferences. The focus, again, is placed on what is known about how advertising can affect children’s developing food choices. Although parents exert the greatest initial influences over children’s diet, before they start school children begin to develop an initial awareness of brand names and associate these with foods they like or dislike. The empirical evidence for food advertising influences in this context derives from a number of different methodologies including self-completion questionnaire surveys, in-depth interviews and controlled experiments. Overall, the research indicates that food advertising can raise children’s awareness of food brands and brands can serve as triggers to food requests made to parents. Such effects can gradually emerge over time and short-term preferences can also be influenced by exposure to specific food advertisements. New forms of digital marketing online have also come to play an increasingly prominent role in this context. It is important to recognise, however, that food promotions do not occur in a social or psychological vacuum and that there are other factors in the life of the child that come into play and can mediate the significance of any effects of food advertising.