Washington, Mar 8 (ANI): A new study has found that the use of media characters on cereal packaging may influence children's opinions about taste.
Matthew A. Lapierre and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, evaluated 80 children between the ages of 4 and 6 years (average age 5.6 years), to determine if using a licensed spokescharacter on food packaging affected children's taste assessment of the cereal.
Children were shown boxes of cereal labeled either Healthy Bits or Sugar Bits, with some boxes featuring media characters and some without. Having seen only the box, participants were asked to rate the taste of the cereal on a scale of one to five.
Almost all the children reported liking the cereal, however those who saw a popular media character on the box reported liking the cereal more than those who viewed a box without a character on it.
Additionally, those who sampled the cereal named Healthy Bits reported enjoying the cereal more than children who were given the same cereal under the name Sugar Bits.
Children receiving the cereal with the name Sugar Bits in a box with no characters on it reported being significantly less satisfied with the taste than those in the other three groups.
No significant differences were found among children in the Healthy Bits group based on the presence or absence of characters on the box.
"The results of this experiment provide evidence that the use of popular characters on food products affects children's assessment of taste," the authors conclude.
"Messages encouraging healthy eating may resonate with young children, but the presence of licensed characters on packaging potentially overrides children's assessments of nutritional merit."
The report is published in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. (ANI)
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