The impact of food advertisements on changing eating behaviors: An experimental study

Abstract

This research examines how three types of food advertising (healthy food, unhealthy food, and anti-obesity) impact consumers’ purchases of lunch items. The analysis is based on an economic experiment conducted with 186 adult non-undergraduate student subjects, each of which were randomly placed into either the control group or one of four treatments: (1) healthy food advertising, (2) anti-obesity advertising, (3) unhealthy food advertising, and (4) mixed (all three food) advertising. The results indicate that healthy, anti-obesity, and mixed food advertising reduced intakes of total calories, fat, sodium, and carbohydrates. Similarly, anti-obesity, healthy, and mixed food advertising results in increasing the probability of selecting more healthy items and fewer unhealthy items from a menu. Healthy food advertising has a stronger impact than anti-obesity or mixed food advertising.