Teaching children about good health? Halo effects in child-directed advertisements for unhealthy food.

BACKGROUND Food companies often use healthy lifestyle messages in child-directed advertising, raising public health concerns about health halo effects for nutrient-poor food/drinks. OBJECTIVE Examine effects of health messages promoting nutrient-poor foods in child-directed advertising. METHODS Randomized controlled experiment (N = 138). Children (7-11 years) viewed three child-friendly commercials in one of three conditions: (1) health halo (unfamiliar nutrient-poor food/drink ads with healthy messages); (2) nutrient-poor food/drink ads with other messages and (3) healthy food/drink ads. They rated the commercials and advertised products, provided attitudes about exercise and nutrition and consumed and rated healthy and unhealthy snack foods. RESULTS Children in the health halo condition rated the advertised nutrient-poor products as significantly healthier compared with children in other conditions (p = .003), but the other commercials did not affect children's attitudes about other advertised products (p's > .50). Child age, gender or TV viewing habits did not significantly predict their ratings (p's > .18). There was no evidence that healthy lifestyle messages and/or healthy food commercials improved children's attitudes about nutrition, exercise or healthy snack consumption. CONCLUSION Promoting healthy lifestyle messages in child-directed commercials for nutrient-poor food/drinks likely benefits brands by increasing products' perceived healthfulness, but these ads are unlikely to positively affect children's attitudes about health and nutrition.