Popular Characters Supercede Actual Taste in Cereals
by Rudolph Yap in Nutrition on May 30, 2011
Researchers say that a lot of children prefer cereals that feature popular media characters on its packages such as Shrek, without minding their actual taste.
Keri Gans, a spokesperson from the American Dietetic Association and also the author of the upcoming book The Small Change Diet, shared, “This tells us what we’ve probably already guessed, that young children are going to be more likely to enjoy their cereal f it has one of their favorite characters on it.” It is also important to note that when the cereal does not have any of their favorite character on the package, these children prefer cereals whose name suggest health rather than sugar consumption.
According to Sara Vaala, a doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, “Trade characters are used to help young children remember and identify products. They’re a visual clue.” Most of the characters are commonly found in packaging of foods with more unsure nutritional value.
With the study conducted at the Yale University, researchers found that the branding of American food products with characters like Shrek and Dora the Explorer as part of the packaging drives children to choose high-calorie, less healthful over nutritious ones.
Vaala explained that these children transfer their favorable attitude for the character to the product and want to buy it more. Further, she stated, “We wanted to know if that transfer extended to the actual taste of the product, whether putting these friendly, well-known characters on products subconsciously influences their judgment of the product.”
Moreover, Gans suggested, “Take these cartoon characters and put them on high-fiber, low-sugar cereals, and target them to children. This should be an opportunity for food manufacturers who are concerned about the obesity epidemic in our youth to get them to choose healthier cereals.”
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