IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jcopol/v37y2014i2p279-299.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adolescents’ Assessments of Advertisements for Unhealthy Food: an Example of Warning Labels for Soft Drinks

Author

Listed:
  • Tobias Effertz
  • Marie-Kristin Franke
  • Thorsten Teichert

Abstract

The potential of advertising to deceive young adolescents is problematic especially when it results in unhealthy food choices. Health warnings are supposed to raise awareness of the risky nature of a food product. However, these warnings compete for consumer’s attention with other advertising components set by marketers, such as product claims, visual frames, and images. To examine perception, attitudes, and behavioural intentions towards an ad, adolescents were exposed with fictitious soft drink advertisements in an experimental design. Hereby, we systematically varied warning labels and visual frames as key design elements of the advertisement. Results suggest that the effects of warnings on attitudes and purchase intention are mitigated by accompanying advertising elements. A single positive visual cue is sufficient to provoke purchase intentions. Overall, distraction from health warnings peaks in the youngest age groups and decreases with age. Findings raise concerns about how public health regulations on advertisements should be designed when the purpose is to inform especially younger adolescents of possible health risks. We discuss several implications for ethical marketing techniques of food products. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Tobias Effertz & Marie-Kristin Franke & Thorsten Teichert, 2014. "Adolescents’ Assessments of Advertisements for Unhealthy Food: an Example of Warning Labels for Soft Drinks," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 279-299, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jcopol:v:37:y:2014:i:2:p:279-299
    DOI: 10.1007/s10603-013-9248-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10603-013-9248-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10603-013-9248-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barlow, Todd & Wogalter, Michael S, 1993. "Alcoholic Beverage Warnings in Magazine and Television Advertisements," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(1), pages 147-156, June.
    2. Aaker, David A & Stayman, Douglas M & Hagerty, Michael R, 1986. "Warmth in Advertising: Measurement, Impact, and Sequence Effects," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(4), pages 365-381, March.
    3. Batra, Rajeev & Ray, Michael L, 1986. "Affective Responses Mediating Acceptance of Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(2), pages 234-249, September.
    4. Christian Derbaix & Joël Bree, 1997. "The impact of children's affective reactions elicited by commercials on attitudes toward the advertisement and the brand," Post-Print hal-02048433, HAL.
    5. Shin-Yi Chou & Inas Rashad & Michael Grossman, 2008. "Fast-Food Restaurant Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(4), pages 599-618, November.
    6. Shimp, Terence A & Stuart, Elnora W & Engle, Randall W, 1991. "A Program of Classical Conditioning Experiments Testing Variations in the Conditioned Stimulus and Context," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(1), pages 1-12, June.
    7. Rook, Dennis W & Fisher, Robert J, 1995. "Normative Influences on Impulsive Buying Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(3), pages 305-313, December.
    8. Jan C. van Ours, 2006. "Dynamics in the use of drugs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(12), pages 1283-1294, December.
    9. MacInnis, Deborah J & Price, Linda L, 1987. "The Role of Imagery in Information Processing: Review and Extensions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(4), pages 473-491, March.
    10. Yoo, Changjo & MacInnis, Deborah, 2005. "The brand attitude formation process of emotional and informational ads," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(10), pages 1397-1406, October.
    11. Pham, Michel Tuan, 1996. "Cue Representation and Selection Effects of Arousal on Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(4), pages 373-387, March.
    12. MacKinnon, D.P. & Nohre, L. & Pentz, M.A. & Stacy, A.W., 2000. "The alcohol warning and adolescents: 5-Year effects," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(10), pages 1589-1594.
    13. Nelson, James E. & Duncan, Calvin P. & Kiecker, Pamela L., 1993. "Toward an understanding of the distraction construct in marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 201-221, March.
    14. John, Deborah Roedder, 1999. "Consumer Socialization of Children: A Retrospective Look at Twenty-Five Years of Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 26(3), pages 183-213, December.
    15. Petty, Richard E & Cacioppo, John T & Schumann, David, 1983. "Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 10(2), pages 135-146, September.
    16. Mitchell, Andrew A, 1986. "The Effect of Verbal and Visual Components of Advertisements on Brand Attitudes and Attitude toward the Advertisement," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(1), pages 12-24, June.
    17. Schneider, Kenneth C, 1977. "Prevention of Accidental Poisoning through Package and Label Design," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 4(2), pages 67-74, Se.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. F. Ziesemer & A. Hüttel & I. Balderjahn, 2021. "Young People as Drivers or Inhibitors of the Sustainability Movement: The Case of Anti-Consumption," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 427-453, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ruiz, Salvador & Sicilia, Maria, 2004. "The impact of cognitive and/or affective processing styles on consumer response to advertising appeals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 657-664, June.
    2. Valentina Nicolini & Fabio Cassia, 2022. "The influence of PSA's likeability on children’s intentions to eat healthy food," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(1), pages 15-36, March.
    3. Mahsa Akbari, 2015. "Different Impacts of Advertising Appeals on Advertising Attitude for High and Low Involvement Products," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 16(3), pages 478-493, June.
    4. Rodríguez-Molina, M.A. & Frías-Jamilena, D.M. & Castañeda-García, J.A., 2015. "The contribution of website design to the generation of tourist destination image: The moderating effect of involvement," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 303-317.
    5. Huang, Ching-Yuan & Chou, Chia-Jung & Lin, Pei-Ching, 2010. "Involvement theory in constructing bloggers' intention to purchase travel products," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 513-526.
    6. Puccinelli, Nancy M. & Goodstein, Ronald C. & Grewal, Dhruv & Price, Robert & Raghubir, Priya & Stewart, David, 2009. "Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Understanding the Buying Process," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 15-30.
    7. Davies, Antony & Cline, Thomas W., 2005. "A consumer behavior approach to modeling monopolistic competition," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 797-826, December.
    8. Boukis, Achilleas, 2023. "Storytelling in initial coin offerings: Attracting investment or gaining referrals?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    9. Coulter, Keith S. & Punj, Girish, 1999. "Influence of Viewing Context on the Determinants of Attitude Toward the Ad and the Brand," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 47-58, May.
    10. van Reijmersdal, Eva A. & Rozendaal, Esther & Buijzen, Moniek, 2012. "Effects of Prominence, Involvement, and Persuasion Knowledge on Children's Cognitive and Affective Responses to Advergames," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 33-42.
    11. Tijo Thomas & Johney Johnson, 2017. "The Impact of Celebrity Expertise on Advertising Effectiveness: The Mediating Role of Celebrity Brand Fit," Vision, , vol. 21(4), pages 367-374, December.
    12. Frédéric Basso & Philippe Robert-Demontrond & Maryvonne Hayek & Jean-Luc Anton & Bruno Nazarian & Muriel Roth & Olivier Oullier, 2014. "Why People Drink Shampoo? Food Imitating Products Are Fooling Brains and Endangering Consumers for Marketing Purposes," Post-Print halshs-01183005, HAL.
    13. Emmanuel Mogaji, 2016. "This advert makes me cry: Disclosure of emotional response to advertisement on Facebook," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1177906-117, December.
    14. Schoormans, Jan P. L. & Robben, Henry S. J., 1997. "The effect of new package design on product attention, categorization and evaluation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 271-287, April.
    15. Yang, Zhiyong & Kim, Chankon & Laroche, Michel & Lee, Hanjoon, 2014. "Parental style and consumer socialization among adolescents: A cross-cultural investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 228-236.
    16. FILSER, Marc, 2001. "Actes de la 6ème Journée de Recherche en Marketing de Bourgogne. Marketing des activités culturelles, des loisirs, du tourisme et du sport. Dijon, 15 novembre 2001," LEG - CERMAB / Centre de Recherche en Marketing de Bourgogne - Journées de Recherche en Marketing de Bourgogne JRMB06, LEG - CERMAB, CNRS UMR 5118, Université de Bourgogne.
    17. Valenti, Albert & Yildirim, Gokhan & Vanhuele, Marc & Srinivasan, Shuba & Pauwels, Koen, 2023. "Advertising’s sequence of effects on consumer mindset and sales: A comparison across brands and product categories," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 435-454.
    18. Basso, Frédéric & Robert-Demontrond, Philippe & Hayek, Maryvonne & Anton, Jean-Luc & Nazarian, Bruno & Roth, Muriel & Oullier, Olivier, 2014. "Why people drink shampoo? Food imitating products are fooling brains and endangering consumers for marketing purposes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59224, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Balakrishnan, Janarthanan & Foroudi, Pantea & Dwivedi, Yogesh K., 2020. "Does online retail coupons and memberships create favourable psychological disposition?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 229-244.
    20. Kim, Juran & Lee, Ki Hoon, 2019. "Influence of integration on interactivity in social media luxury brand communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 422-429.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jcopol:v:37:y:2014:i:2:p:279-299. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.