Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (1998), 11, 511–517

The relationship between television

food advertisements recalled and actual
foods consumed by children

E. Hitchings and P. J. Moynihan

The Dental School, Medical Faculty, University of Newcastle,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Introduction: A probable influence on children’s food choices is television

advertising, although there is very little information on the relationship between
food advertisements shown and foods consumed by British children.
Methods: Forty-four children aged 9–11 years, from private and state schools in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne from a variety of social class areas were interviewed to
determine which television advertisements for food they remembered. The study
sample was small and not known to be representative. Brand-specific information
on food intake was obtained using a 3-day food diary. Parents were interviewed
regarding food requests received. Spearman’s correlation was carried out between
the number of foods for which advertisements could be remembered and the
number of times these foods were consumed.
Results: A relationship was found between the foods for which the children
could remember the advertisement and the number of these foods which the
child ate (r=0.58). For individual food groups the relationship between foods
remembered and foods consumed was strongest for soft drinks (r=0.68) and
crisps and savoury snacks (r=0.61). Four out of 10 of the most frequently
requested foods were amongst the 10 most frequently recalled television food
advertisements.
Conclusions: The results support the hypothesis that television advertisements
influence food choice.

Key words: advertising, food requests, schoolchildren, television.

Introduction consumption of foods such as confectionery

Identification of effective diet intervention
strategies is a priority (Department of Health,
1994). Most children know what constitutes
a healthy diet (Booth, 1994); however, this
knowledge is not reflected in current dietary
practices. Most recent data on the diets of
school children show that intakes of sugar and
fat remain high (Adamson et al., 1992; Rugg-
Gunn et al., 1993; Ruxton et al., 1996). The
Correspondence: Dr P. J. Moynihan, The Dental
School, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 4BW, UK.
and soft drinks has risen and large amounts of
foods with a high fat content, such as chips and
crisps, have continued to be eaten (Adamson
et al., 1992).
In order to develop effective intervention
strategies to encourage children to make
sensible food choices, more information on
what influences their food choice is required.
A probable influence on children’s food
choices is television advertising. In the UK,
children watch on average 19 h of television a
week (National Food Alliance, 1995), and in
the USA, longer viewing periods have been
reported (Taras et al., 1989). In a study of
Australian school children a relationship was

 1998 Blackwell Science Ltd 511

512 E. Hitchings and P. J. Moynihan
found between children’s viewing times and
the frequency of consumption of certain
foods. Children who viewed most television
consumed ‘unhealthy foods’, such as French
fries, soft drinks, biscuits and meat pies, more
frequently and ‘healthier foods’, such as fresh
fruit, less frequently (Woodward et al., 1997).
It has been proven that tobacco advertising
can increase the incidence of young people
smoking (DiFranza et al., 1991; Pierce et al.,
1991), and their awareness of the advertised
product (Fischer et al., 1991). It is therefore
possible that advertisements for some foods
may encourage unhealthy eating, presenting
a barrier to desirable dietary change. Many
advertisements shown during children’s
viewing times are for foods of low nutrient
density, and are high in sugar and fat. The
National Food Alliance (1995) examined
advertisements shown during programming
aimed at children and adolescents and
advertising shown during programming aimed
at an adult audience. Seventy per cent of
all advertisements shown during children’s
viewing hours were for food, whereas during
adult viewing hours only 20% of total
advertisements shown were for food. Over
98% of food advertisements shown during
children’s viewing were for foods high in sugar,
salt and/or fat.
Studies have investigated the effect of
television advertisements on the food choices
of children; however, they have either been
carried out outside the UK or with young
children. In a study of 3–8-year-old children
in the USA (Taras et al., 1989), frequency of
requests for foods paralleled the frequency
the advertisement was shown on television;
however, whether or not the foods were
subsequently consumed by the children was
not investigated. In a study of 4–7-year-old
American children, Galst & White (1976)
showed that the more commercial television
that was viewed, the more food requests were
made to the parent. Studies carried out on
Canadian schoolchildren have shown that
exposing children to different types of food
commercials influences their subsequent food
choices (Goldberg et al., 1978). Children shown
television advertisements for sugared foods
opted for more sugary foods compared with
children exposed to advertisements for more
nutritious foods. Research carried out in the
 1998 Blackwell Science Ltd, J Hum Nutr Dietet 11, 511–517
USA has indicated a causal relationship
between television viewing and obesity.
Reduced energy expenditure coupled with
increased food consumption as a result of
increased viewing have been suggested
as potential mechanisms to explain the
association (Dietz & Gortmaker, 1985). One
study, conducted in the UK by Donkin et al.
(1992), interviewed the parents of 507 children
aged 7–11 years and found that 37% of the
food which children requested had been
advertised on television in the previous 6
months. However, in this study records of
dietary intake by the children were not
collected.
In the UK there are no data on the relation-
ship between food advertisements shown and
foods actually consumed by children aged
9–10 years – an age at which a child is gaining
increased independence in food choice. In
view of this, the aims of the present study
were: (1) to investigate the relationship
between food advertisements remembered by
children aged 9–10 years and the actual foods
they subsequently consumed; (2) to investigate
the relationship between foods remembered
by children from television advertisements and
requests for food purchases. The overall aim
was therefore to obtain information on the
potential influences of television advertising
on the food choices of children to determine
the importance of considering food advertise-
ment when designing nutrition intervention
strategies aimed at schoolchildren.
Materials and methods
School children of both sexes between the ages
of 9 and 10 years of age were recruited from
private and state schools in Newcastle-upon-
Tyne. The sample was small and not known
to be representative. Written consent was
obtained from parent or guardian.
Children were interviewed at school and
were asked to verbally recall the television
advertisements for food which they could
remember seeing on television recently (over
the past 2 weeks). No prompting for answers
was given, in order to mimic to the situation
when a child requests a food without first
seeing the product as a visual memory aid.
Any advertisements which the child said they
 Food advertisements and food choice by children 513

Table 1. Food groups included in the study

Food group Foods included Foods excluded

Breakfast cereals all breakfast cereals

Confectionery sweet, chocolate bars, fully coated chocolate
biscuits, chewing gum, iced lollies
Sweet puddings tinned and stewed fruit, ice-cream, yoghurts, fresh fruit
potted desserts
Savoury snacks crisps, corn snacks, twiglets, nuts, popcorn, cheese
savoury biscuits
Soft drinks carbonated drinks, squashes, fruit juices tea, coffee, milk, water
Cakes and biscuits all cakes and most biscuits fully coated chocolate biscuits
Chips (French fries) all chips

could remember but for which they could
not remember the product name were not
included. Any advertisements which the
children remembered which did not fit into
the food categories studied were not included
in the final analysis. If a child remembered
more than one advertisement for the same food
they were only credited once for remembering
the food advertised.
Each child was asked to complete a 3-day
food diary which involved writing down
everything they ate or drank for 3 days,
including the brand name of the product.
Diaries were completed for two week-days and
one weekend day. Purpose-designed pocket-
sized diaries were provided for this purpose.
On completion of the diaries children were
interviewed to clarify and enlarge on the
information recorded.
The main home food purchaser was inter-
viewed at the child’s home to obtain
information on food requests made by the
child in the last month, and to whether or not
these requested foods were purchased. All
the interviews were carried out by the same
investigator.
The study focused on foods which are high
in fat, sugar or both and which may be eaten
as snack foods. A list of the food groups
included is given in Table 1.
Food diaries were examined and a record
made of foods consumed within each of the
food groups listed in Table 1. Due to the non-
Gaussian nature of the data, nonparametric
methods of statistical analysis were used. The
relationship between the total number of
foods for which advertisements could be
remembered and the number of these foods
which were recorded in the food diaries
was investigated using Spearman’s rank cor-
relation. Children who did not remember any
food advertisements in a particular category
were not excluded from the correlation
analysis.
Results
Eleven schools were initially approached and,
of these, four agreed to take part. A total of 169
subjects from the four schools were initially
approached, of which 44 started the study and
41 completed the study. This gave an overall
recruitment rate of 26.0%, and a drop-out rate
of 6.8%. The mean age of all the subjects
was 10.2 years. Details of the subjects’ type of
school, sex and ages can be seen in Table 2.
Table 3 lists the mean, median and range
for the number of food advertisements
remembered per child, in each of the food
group categories. Most advertisements were
remembered in the breakfast cereal food group,
followed by confectionery then soft drinks.
Fewest advertisements were remembered in
the cake and biscuit category.
The results of the Spearman’s rank
correlation analysis between the number of
food advertisements remembered and the
number of these food products which were
eaten are shown in Table 4. Spearman’s rank
correlation was used because the data were
unevenly distributed and the variables non-
continuous. All children remembered at least
one advertisement and no child was excluded
from the analyses.

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514 E. Hitchings and P. J. Moynihan

Table 2. Number (n) and age in years (mean±SD) of subjects by sex and type of
school attended

Private schools State schools All schools

n age n age n age

Boys 11 10.1 (±0.2) 10 10.1 (±0.2) 21 10.1 (±0.2)

Girls 6 10.6 (±0.3) 17 10.1 (±0.3) 23 10.2 (±0.4)
Both genders 17 10.3 (±0.3) 27 10.1 (±0.3) 44 10.2 (±0.3)

Table 3. Number of foods for which advertisements were remembered, and number of these foods
which were eaten by each child, for each food group. Mean, median and range (n=41)

Food advertisements remembered Number of foods remembered and eaten

Food group mean median range Mean median range

Breakfast cereals 3.25 3 0–12 1.20 1 0–9

Confectionery 2.14 2 0–10 0.81 0 0–8
Soft drinks 1.59 1 0–6 0.51 0 0–3
Crisps/snacks 1.07 1 0–7 0.21 0 0–2
Chips (French fries) 0.66 1 0–2 0.71 0 0–2
Puddings 0.52 0 0–3 0.10 0 0–1
Cakes & biscuits 0.36 0 0–4 0.10 0 0–1
All food groups 9.95 10 0–37 3.53 3 0–16

The strongest relationships between advert- number of food advertisements remembered

isements remembered and foods consumed and the number of these foods that were eaten,
were observed for soft drinks (r=0.68) and for all food categories, is presented in Fig. 1.
crisps and savoury snacks (r=0.61). The The 10 most frequently recalled food
correlation value for all food groups together advertisements and the 10 most commonly
was 0.578. The relationship between the requested foods were noted and are listed in
Table 5, which indicates that these lists have
four out of the 10 foods in common: Walkers
crisps; Kellogg’s Coco-pops; Micro-chips and
Table 4. Spearman’s rank coefficients between the Kellogg’s Frosties. Overall 96% of food
number of food advertisements remembered and
requests made by the children to their parents
the number of those foods eaten
were granted.
Spearman’s rank
Food group coefficient P
Discussion
Breakfast cereals 0.44 0.005
Sweets 0.56 0.001 This study has demonstrated a relationship
Puddings 0.50 0.01 between remembering a specific food advert-
Crisps 0.61 0.001 isement and the consumption of that specific
Soft drinks 0.68 0.001
food by children. The findings also show that
Cakes 0.57 0.001
foods remembered from television advert-
Chips (French fries) 0.32 0.45
All foods 0.58 0.001 isements are often requested by children: in
the present study four out of the 10 most

 1998 Blackwell Science Ltd, J Hum Nutr Dietet 11, 511–517

 1998 Blackwell Science Ltd, J Hum Nutr Dietet 11, 511–517
Food advertisements and food choice by children

Fig. 1. Scatterplot illustrating the relationship between the number of food television advertisements which were remembered and the
number of these foods which were subsequently eaten, for 44 children aged 10 years.
515
516 E. Hitchings and P. J. Moynihan
Table 5. The 10 most frequently recalled food advertisements compared with the
10 most commonly requested foods
Remembered advertisements
Food product Frequency
Kellogg’s Cornflakesa 24
Walkers Crispsb 23
Coca-Cola 22
Kellogg’s Coco-popsa 19
Kellogg’s Frostiesa 16
McCain’s Oven Chipsd 12
Kellogg’s Rice-Krispiesa 12
Ribenae 11
Micro-chipsd 10
Shredded Wheata 10
a
breakfast cereals, bpotato crisps, cchocolate bars, dchips (French fries), esoft drink,
f
sweet filled biscuits.
common food requests were amongst the 10
most frequently remembered food advert-
isements. In a study of younger children,
carried out in the United States (Galst & White,
1976), a positive correlation between the
hours of television watched and the number
of food requests made was found; however,
this study made no attempt to link specific
advertisements watched to specific foods
requested. More recently, in the UK, Donkin
et al. (1992) found that 37% of foods requested
by children were previously advertised on
television. Earlier research (Galst & White,
1976) showed that children receive up to 45%
of the foods which they request; the present
study indicates that this figure may have risen
substantially. A recent MORI poll has also
shown that parents acknowledge that they buy
many foods because their children have asked
them to (MORI, 1994).
Breakfast cereals were the most frequently
remembered food advertisement, and such
advertisements have been shown to be the
type of advertisement most frequently shown
to children (Donkin et al., 1993; National
Food Alliance, 1995). Breakfast cereals were
included in the food groups studied because
many brands are high in sugar; however, in
the present study, not all cereals recalled by
the children were high in sugar. If advertising
breakfast cereals encourages breakfast cereal
consumption, this is likely to have a beneficial
 1998 Blackwell Science Ltd, J Hum Nutr Dietet 11, 511–517
Requested foods
Food product Frequency
Walkers Crisps 15
Kit Katc 8
Kellogg’s Coco-pops 7
Micro-chips 5
Kellogg’s Frosties 5
Weetabixa 5
Hula Hoopsb 5
Mars Barsc 5
Jaffa Cakesf 5
Custard Creamsf 5
effect on the diet, as breakfast cereals are
generally low in fat and are consumed with
milk, thereby increasing milk consumption
and micronutrient intake (Ruxton et al., 1996;
Ruxton & Kirk, 1997).
In general, the present study only
investigated foods in which the energy content
was largely composed of sugar and/or fat
and did not include foods considered to be
healthier, such as meat, milk, vegetables and
fruit. Inclusion of these foods may have added
to the completeness of the data, but was not
seen to be feasible due to the small number
of advertisements for healthier foods shown
during children’s viewing hours (National
Food Alliance, 1995). The influence of ad-
vertising healthier food during children’s peak
viewing hours should be investigated.
The observed relationship between televi-
sion advertising and food consumption
may not necessarily imply causation because
it is possible that children are more likely
to remember the advertisements for foods
which they already eat. However, previous
intervention studies have shown that exposing
young children to advertisements for foods of
low nutrient density increased the desire for
those foods (Goldberg et al., 1978). The
possibility that atypical behaviour of a few
individuals skews the data also cannot be ruled
out given that the average number of foods
advertisements remembered in each separate
 Food advertisements and food choice by children
food category was fairly small and the sample
size was also relatively small. The study
sample was not known to be representative,
and therefore a larger scale investigation of a
representative sample of children is required
to confirm these initial findings. Given that
television programme material may also
convey food-related messages, future research
should pay attention to the content of both
advertising and programmes (Dickerson &
Leader, 1996).
The present data support the hypothesis that
television advertisements may influence food
choice. Television advertising may there-
fore be an important consideration in dietary
interventions aimed at children. Increased
advertising of nutritious foods, and restrictions
on advertising foods of low nutrient density,
during children’s peak viewing hours may
be an effective means of intervention which
warrants further attention. Nonetheless,
parents buy the foods children request and
education of parents on sensible eating
remains of paramount importance.
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