The relationship between television food advertisements recalled and actual foods consumed by children

Introduction: A probable influence on children's food choices is television advertising, although there is very :Little information on the relationship between food advertisements shown and foods consumed by British children. Methods: Forty-four children aged 9-11 years, from private and state schools in Newcastle-upon-Tyne from a variety of social class areas were interviewed to determine which television advertisements for food they remembered. The study sample was small and not known to be representative. Brand-specific information on food intake was obtained using a 3-day food diary. Parents were interviewed regarding food requests received. Spearman's correlation was carried out between the number of foods for which advertisements could be remembered and the number of times these foods were consumed. Results: A relationship was found between the foods for which the children could remember the advertisement and the number of these foods which the child ate (r = 0.58). For individual food groups the relationship between foods remembered and foods consumed was strongest for soft drinks (r = 0.68) and crisps and savoury snacks (r = 0.61). Four out of 10 of the most frequently requested foods were amongst the 10 most frequently recalled television food advertisements. Conclusions: The results support the hypothesis that television advertisements influence food choice.