1 Department of Health Policy, Management, and Behavior, University at Albany School of Public Health, One University Place, Rensselaer, NY 12144, USA.
Public Health Nutr. 2013 Dec;16(12):2188-96. doi: 10.1017/S1368980012005216. Epub 2012 Dec 7.
Childhood obesity is a growing problem in the USA. As parents play a major role in shaping a child's diet, the present study examines food advertisements (ads) directed towards parents in parenting and family magazines.
Given the potential for magazines to influence attitudes and knowledge, we used content analysis to examine the food ads appearing in four issues each of six different parenting and family magazines from 2008 (n 24).
USA.
Food ads in parenting and family magazines.
We identified 476 food ads, which represented approximately 32 % of all ads in the magazine sample. Snack foods (13 %) were the most frequently observed food ads, followed by dairy products (7 %). The most frequently used sales theme was ‘taste’ (55 %). Some ads promoted foods as ‘healthy’ (14 %) and some made specific health claims (18 %), such as asserting the product would help lower cholesterol. In addition to taste and health and nutrition appeals, we found several themes used in ad messages to promote products, including the following: ‘convenience’, ‘economical’, ‘fun’ and ‘helping families spend time together’. We also found that over half (n 405, 55·9 %) of products (n 725) advertised were products of poor nutritional quality based on total fat, saturated fat, sodium, protein, sugar and fibre contents, and that ads for such products were slightly more likely to use certain sales themes like ‘fun’ (P = 0·04) and ‘no guilt’ (P = 0·03).
Interventions should be developed to help parents understand nutritional information seen in food ads and to learn how various foods contribute to providing a balanced family diet.
儿童肥胖在美国是一个日益严重的问题。由于父母在塑造孩子的饮食方面起着重要作用，本研究检查了针对育儿和家庭杂志中父母的食品广告。
鉴于杂志有可能影响态度和知识，我们使用内容分析来检查 2008 年六本不同育儿和家庭杂志的四期每本中的食品广告（n=24）。
美国。
育儿和家庭杂志中的食品广告。
我们确定了 476 个食品广告，占杂志样本中所有广告的约 32%。零食（13%）是最常观察到的食品广告，其次是乳制品（7%）。最常用的销售主题是“味道”（55%）。一些广告将食品宣传为“健康”（14%），有些则提出了具体的健康声明（18%），例如声称该产品有助于降低胆固醇。除了口味、健康和营养诉求外，我们还在广告信息中发现了一些用于推广产品的主题，包括以下内容：“方便”、“经济”、“有趣”和“帮助家庭共度时光”。我们还发现，超过一半（n=405，55.9%）的广告产品（n=725）根据总脂肪、饱和脂肪、钠、蛋白质、糖和纤维含量，属于营养质量差的产品，并且此类产品的广告更有可能使用某些销售主题，如“有趣”（P=0.04）和“无内疚感”（P=0.03）。
应制定干预措施，帮助父母了解食品广告中看到的营养信息，并学习各种食品如何有助于提供均衡的家庭饮食。
