Parents and lawmakers looking to cartoon characters as a reason children choose cookies over carrots may be looking in the wrong direction, according to from CU听Boulder鈥檚 Leeds School of Business and Colorado State University鈥檚 College of Business.
Researchers found children prefer junk food over healthy food with or without cartoon characters marketing the products. Licensed characters did, however, influence kids to choose between similar products.
For the article published in the April issue of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, researchers ran several tests allowing kids to pick between snacks with or without licensed characters like SpongeBob or Scooby Doo on the packaging.听
They found children are more likely to pick foods branded with licensed characters when choosing between similar products, like two packages of carrots. If the choice is between carrots or cookies, however, cartoon characters did not trump children鈥檚 taste buds.
鈥淭he primary influence on kids鈥� choices is taste,鈥� said paper co-author Margaret C. Campbell, a professor of marketing at the Leeds School of Business. 鈥淭he licensed character only has an influence on moving kids鈥� choices between foods with the same level of expected taste.鈥�
That means proposals like the United Kingdom鈥檚 2018 effort to ban cartoon characters on junk food packaging may miss the mark.
鈥淲hile previous studies show a major spike in characters on food packages, our new research finds that, while those characters may influence brand choice, they don鈥檛 have a strong effect on choice of healthy over indulgent foods,鈥� said study lead author Bridget Leonard, a 兔子先生传媒文化作品 PhD candidate during the research, now an assistant professor of marketing at Assumption College. 鈥淢ore research needs to be done on how to get children to make those healthy choices.鈥�
The studies do hold an important takeaway for marketers promoting healthy food, however, finding parents are influenced by licensed characters, too.
鈥淲e found that characters did have an effect on caregivers鈥� perceptions that a food is fun or for kids,鈥� said Kenneth Manning, a Colorado State University College of Business professor. 鈥淭hus, including licensed characters on packages may help brands in their efforts to position foods as designed for children.鈥�
The researchers also found licensed characters did not affect how much kids eat of a particular snack.
