Children’s food advertising in Singapore : executional tactics, child consumption habits and parental mediation

Abstract

Food and beverage (F&B) television (TV) advertising has been widely recognized as one of the major causes of rising childhood obesity rates. This research aims to examine F&B advertising targeted at children as well as the effectiveness of parental mediation on children’s dietary habits in Singapore. Study One presents a content analysis of F&B advertisements (ads) targeted at children on five Singapore channels over a period of two weeks. The majority of the unique TV F&B ads were found to be promoting more unhealthy food compared to healthy food. Building on the basis of comparison between healthy and unhealthy ads, factors such as the types of emotional appeals and health claims, degree of ad repetition, portrayal of appropriate food portions and consumption situations are discussed. In Study Two, a survey on 843 children aged 9 to 12 was carried out to examine the effects of parental mediation and media exposure on children’s attitudes and intention towards healthy food, as well as consumption of healthy and unhealthy food. Consistent with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that greater consumption of healthy food was associated with higher intention and positive attitudes towards healthy eating. This in turn was influenced by higher restrictive parental mediation of TV and lower levels of TV viewing. Implications for advertising regulations and social marketing are discussed.