Cartoon branding makes junk food attractive to kids

When popular cartoon characters like Shrek and Scooby Doo are placed on the label of food products, children find them tastier.

Researchers who reported their findings in the Paediatrics Journal took a sample group of 40 children, all of whom were aged between 4 and 6 and all of whom attended school in New Haven, America.

The kids were presented with a selection of graham crackers (a popular sweet biscuit in the States), jelly fruit snacks, and packets of carrots. They were asked to try all three and for each snack variety, they were given both unbranded packets and ones adorned with logos featuring their favourite cartoon characters.

At the end of the session, the children seemed adamant that the food which featured character branding was the tastiest. Interestingly the researchers report that even character branding couldn’t save carrots from being consigned to the ‘untasty’ category in most children’s minds. The researchers say that aside from the more instant and intense taste of the sweeter snacks, this could be because kids are used to seeing logos on processed food products, but not natural ones.

Should character branding be restricted?

Food manufacturers have used cartoon characters to appeal for children for years. From the monkey that swings onto your TV screen on Coco Pops adverts, to the famous McDonald’s mascot, Ronald McDonald.

Critics of this type of marketing say that it fools children into perceiving junk food as something innocent and harmless. They say that official government bodies such as the Food Standards Agency in the UK should enforce tougher restrictions on this type of advertising. The argument for such a move would seem to be backed up by the alarming levels of childhood obesity, both here in the UK, and in the US where this latest study was conducted. In the US levels of childhood obesity have doubled since the 1970s.