Publication
Title
Endorsing children's appetite for healthy foods : celebrity versus non-celebrity spokes-characters
Author
Abstract
This paper tests the comparative effectiveness of spokes-characters, both 'celebrity' and 'non-celebrity', in promoting healthy versus non-healthy foods. An experimental study among 6- to 7-year-old children in Belgium demonstrates that adding a spokes-character (i.e., a gnome) to a food product increases the appetite, the wished-for frequency of consumption and the expected number of purchase requests for that product. This finding holds true for healthy foods (apples and grapes) as well as for unhealthy foods (cookies and chocolate). The effect of the celebrity spokes-character exceeds that of a similar (but unknown) gnome. Nevertheless, the latter is also capable of promoting the healthy and unhealthy products. These findings suggest that using 'celebrity' spokes-characters to promote healthy foods to children might indeed be an effective strategy to change children's diets. Even the use of similar, non-celebrity (and thus cheaper) spokes-characters could be quite fruitful.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Communications : the European journal of communication research / Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kommunikationsforschung [Köln]; Association Allemande de Recherche pour la Communication [Cologne] - Sankt Augustin, 1976, currens
Publication
Sankt Augustin : Verlag Hans Richarz , 2012
ISSN
0341-2059 [print]
1613-4087 [online]
DOI
10.1515/COMMUN-2012-0021
Volume/pages
37 :4 (2012) , p. 371-391
ISI
000310689700004
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 04.02.2013
Last edited 09.10.2023
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