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Food Advertising: Informative, Misleading or Deceptive?

There is ample evidence that food advertising has a dominating presence in mainstream media advertising (Morgan, Fairchild, Phillips, Stewart, & Hunter, 2009). Food brands have also been at the forefront of utilising new online platforms for promotional purposes. Furthermore, there is evidence that products characterised by high sugar, salt and fat content—deemed by health authorities to pose high health risks to people when consumed on a regular basis—are overrepresented among food advertisements. This last observation is especially true of the premier advertising medium— television, although the brands that are prominent on this medium can also turn up elsewhere in multi-faceted and multi-media marketing campaigns. An additional source of concern to their simple visibility lies in the nature of the promotional messages about food that are conveyed by food advertisements (Keller, Kuilema, Lee et al., 2012) . Do food advertisements make misleading claims about product qualities and in particular about their nutritional value and health benefits? It is known that food advertisers often try to present their products in attentiongrabbing ways that make consuming their products seem like a fun thing to do (Kotz & Story, 1994). Are there other features of food advertising campaigns however that convey misleading impressions about the benefits consumer can expect to gain from particular food items? Some research has suggested that this could be an issue. Do food advertisers make claims directed at parents who are generally responsible for all food purchases in the case of children at the younger end of the age spectrum? In this context researchers have observed that food © The Author(s) 2016 B. Gunter, Food Advertising, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40706-7_4

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advertisers may use appeals that emphasise the nutritional qualities of specific food brands or produce creative promotions that infer that consumption of these brands will somehow benefit children in other ways such as their performance in sports or in the classroom (Ho & Len, 2008; Lobstein, Macmullen, McGrath, & Witt, 2008). Understanding the nature of promotional appeals used in food and non-alcoholic drinks advertisements is important whether these appeals are directed at children or their parents (Escobar, 1999). One reason for this is that children are known to influence household food purchases both directly when they have their own discretionary income and indirectly through parental pestering. In some emerging markets, qualitative research has found that children can guide their parents towards making purchases of widely advertised brands both in retail settings and from fast-food outlets. These effects can extend beyond parents to other adult relatives from whom children receive food-related treats (Watson, 2000). The purpose of this chapter is to follow on from evidence discussed in the last chapter about the visibility of food advertising and the potential for children to be exposed