A systematic review of persuasive marketing techniques to promote food to children on television
Abstract
The ubiquitous marketing of energy-dense, nutrient-poor food and beverages is a key modifiable influence on childhood dietary patterns and obesity. Much of the research on television food advertising is focused on identifying and quantifying unhealthy food marketing with comparatively few studies examining persuasive marketing techniques to promote unhealthy food to children. This review identifies the most frequently documented persuasive marketing techniques to promote food to children via television. A systematic search of eight online databases using key search terms identified 267 unique articles. Thirty-eight articles met the inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis of the reviewed studies revealed the most commonly reported persuasive techniques used on television to promote food to children. These were the use of premium offers, promotional characters, nutrition and health-related claims, the theme of taste, and the emotional appeal of fun. Identifying and documenting these commonly reported persuasive marketing techniques to promote food to children on television is critical for the monitoring and evaluation of advertising codes and industry pledges and the development of further regulation in this area. This has a strong potential to curbing the international obesity epidemic besieging children throughout the world.
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Duplicates were eliminated, and titles and abstracts of scientific papers were analyzed considering research objectives and quality (Q1, Q2, Q3), resulting in 289 articles and references.
“During our analysis, the items were copied/sent to the EndNote X8 software, articles from study 1 and study 2. Duplicates were eliminated, and the titles and abstracts of the scientific papers were analyzed, considering the research objectives and quality (Q1, Q2 and Q3), resulting in a total of 289 articles and references (Jenkin et al., 2014).”
From Linking knowledge management, organizational learning and memory (2020) · cites this paper as Jenkin et al., 2014
In the second study (S2), a search equation with the term 'Organizational Memory' as a search topic returned 1716 results, and the social sciences area was chosen with 1176 scientific article references in Web of Knowledge.
“In the second study (S2), we used a search equation with the terms”
From Linking knowledge management, organizational learning and memory (2020) · cites this paper as Jenkin, Madhvani, Signal, & Bowers, 2014
After synthesizing themes and analyzing texts, a total of 95 references were examined, treated and referenced in the study.
“After synthesizing themes and analyzing texts of scientific articles, a total of 95 references examined, treated and referenced in this study (Jenkin et al., 2014) resulted in the present study.”
From Linking knowledge management, organizational learning and memory (2020) · cites this paper as Jenkin et al., 2014
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“After synthesizing themes and analyzing texts of scientific artiles, a total of 95 references examined, treated and referenced in his study (Jenkin et al., 2014) resulted in the present study.”
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- Authors
- Jenkin, G., Madhvani, N., Signal, L., & Bowers, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Otago (NZ)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Jenkin, G.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Obesity Reviews
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-01-17
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 281-293
- ISSN
- 1467-7881 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-789X
- OpenAlex
- W1563153194
- Cited by
- 159
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 1.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Obesity Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Otago
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Keywords
- television food advertising, food marketing to children, unhealthy food promotion, energy-dense nutrient-poor foods, nutrition and health claims, emotional appeal, childhood obesity, advertising regulation, advertising codes
- MeSH terms
- Advertising, Beverages, Cartoons as Topic, Child, Child Behavior, Child, Preschool, Choice Behavior, Famous Persons, Food, Food Preferences, Humans, Persuasive Communication, Television, Food Industry, Marketing
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