The impact of nutritional warnings on the mental associations raised by advertisements featuring ultra-processed food products

Abstract

Governments worldwide are increasingly mandating the inclusion of graphic and textual warnings on the packages and advertisements of processed products with high content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of nutritional warnings on the mental associations raised by advertisements featuring ultra-processed products. An online experiment was performed with a convenience sample of 380 Uruguayan participants. Participants were exposed to either control advertisements or advertisements featuring black octagonal nutritional warnings. Right after watching the advertisements, they were asked to complete a word association task. Responses were grouped into 20 categories following inductive coding. A generalized linear model was used to assess the effect of experimental condition on the likelihood of providing responses within each of the identified categories. Participants exposed to the advertisements with (vs. without) warnings were more likely to provide responses related to NCDs or nutritional warnings. Meanwhile, no significant differences were found in the frequency of mention of categories related to sensory, hedonic, emotional, or social aspects linked to consuming the products between participants exposed to advertisements with and without warnings. These results suggest that nutritional warnings may be a promising strategy to make consumers aware of the nutritional characteristics of ultra-processed products without affecting the ability of advertisements to convey their intended message.