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Investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in Latin America

BACKGROUND: The inclusion of toys in food packages is a common marketing practice, and it is suspected of promoting obesogenic behaviours. This study aimed to determine whether toys packaged with food are indeed increasing the amount of food eaten by children, and if this effect is enhanced by conte...

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Autores principales: Gregori, Dario, Ballali, Simonetta, Gafare, Claudia Elena, Casella, Adriana, Stefanini, Giulia, de Sousa Alves, Rogenia, Franchin, Laura, Amador, Ignacio, Da Silva, Neila Maria Almedia, Dibildox, Javier
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3717125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23841997
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-12-95
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author Gregori, Dario
Ballali, Simonetta
Gafare, Claudia Elena
Casella, Adriana
Stefanini, Giulia
de Sousa Alves, Rogenia
Franchin, Laura
Amador, Ignacio
Da Silva, Neila Maria Almedia
Dibildox, Javier
author_facet Gregori, Dario
Ballali, Simonetta
Gafare, Claudia Elena
Casella, Adriana
Stefanini, Giulia
de Sousa Alves, Rogenia
Franchin, Laura
Amador, Ignacio
Da Silva, Neila Maria Almedia
Dibildox, Javier
author_sort Gregori, Dario
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The inclusion of toys in food packages is a common marketing practice, and it is suspected of promoting obesogenic behaviours. This study aimed to determine whether toys packaged with food are indeed increasing the amount of food eaten by children, and if this effect is enhanced by contemporary exposure to TV and/or advertising. METHODS: A total of 600 children (balanced according to gender and age groups, 3–6 and 7–10 years old) were randomized in three school facilities in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and exposed to food (snacks) alone or food associated with toys in an experimental setting. All of the children received the same meal at lunchtime. The products were packages in which chocolate was associated with toys in an egg-shaped container partially filled by chocolate. The children were asked to eat ad libitum for 20 minutes during the afternoon break. In addition, the children were randomized into two groups and either shown or not shown a movie cartoon, with three different levels of exposure to commercials in the TV viewing condition (1, 2 or 3 advertisements). RESULTS: No significant differences emerged between the “toys” and “no toys” groups even after taking into account exposure to TV, commercials and other confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS: The inclusion of toys in food packages was not shown per se to lead to an increase in the caloric intake of children.
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spelling pubmed-37171252013-07-21 Investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in Latin America Gregori, Dario Ballali, Simonetta Gafare, Claudia Elena Casella, Adriana Stefanini, Giulia de Sousa Alves, Rogenia Franchin, Laura Amador, Ignacio Da Silva, Neila Maria Almedia Dibildox, Javier Nutr J Research BACKGROUND: The inclusion of toys in food packages is a common marketing practice, and it is suspected of promoting obesogenic behaviours. This study aimed to determine whether toys packaged with food are indeed increasing the amount of food eaten by children, and if this effect is enhanced by contemporary exposure to TV and/or advertising. METHODS: A total of 600 children (balanced according to gender and age groups, 3–6 and 7–10 years old) were randomized in three school facilities in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and exposed to food (snacks) alone or food associated with toys in an experimental setting. All of the children received the same meal at lunchtime. The products were packages in which chocolate was associated with toys in an egg-shaped container partially filled by chocolate. The children were asked to eat ad libitum for 20 minutes during the afternoon break. In addition, the children were randomized into two groups and either shown or not shown a movie cartoon, with three different levels of exposure to commercials in the TV viewing condition (1, 2 or 3 advertisements). RESULTS: No significant differences emerged between the “toys” and “no toys” groups even after taking into account exposure to TV, commercials and other confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS: The inclusion of toys in food packages was not shown per se to lead to an increase in the caloric intake of children. BioMed Central 2013-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3717125/ /pubmed/23841997 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-12-95 Text en Copyright © 2013 Gregori et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Gregori, Dario
Ballali, Simonetta
Gafare, Claudia Elena
Casella, Adriana
Stefanini, Giulia
de Sousa Alves, Rogenia
Franchin, Laura
Amador, Ignacio
Da Silva, Neila Maria Almedia
Dibildox, Javier
Investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in Latin America
title Investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in Latin America
title_full Investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in Latin America
title_fullStr Investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in Latin America
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in Latin America
title_short Investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in Latin America
title_sort investigating the obesogenic effects of marketing snacks with toys: an experimental study in latin america
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3717125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23841997
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-12-95
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