The authors examine whether the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), the food industry's self-regulatory program that restricts child-directed advertising, has been effective in reducing children's advertising exposure and in changing household purchasing behaviors. During 2006–2008, Hershey's, Mars, and Cadbury Adams implemented their CFBAI pledges. The current findings indicate that CFBAI implementation reduced purchasing frequency by households with children of Cadbury Adams's bubble gum (by 80%) but not Hershey's or Mars chocolate. This seems to have resulted from Cadbury Adams's eliminating advertising to all age groups, whereas children continued to be exposed at high levels to Hershey's and Mars chocolate advertising on general programs. The authors conclude that restricting (only) child-directed advertising may not effectively reduce advertising exposure to children, but reducing advertising exposure can significantly lessen household purchasing.
AdamsJean, TyrrellRachel, AdamsonAshley J., and WhiteMartin (2012), “Effect of Restrictions on Television Food Advertising to Children on Exposure to Advertisements for ‘Less Healthy’ Foods: Repeat Cross-Sectional Study,”PLOS ONE, 7 (2), e31578, 1–6.
2.
AssmusGert, FarleyJohn U., and LehmannDonald R. (1984), “How Advertising Affects Sales: Meta-Analysis of Econometric Results,”Journal of Marketing Research, 21 (February), 65–74.
3.
BatadaAmeena and WootanMargo G. (2009), “Better-For-Who? Revisiting Company Promises on Food Marketing to Children,”research report, Center for Science in the Public Interest, (November), (accessed August 10, 2012), [available at http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/pledgereport.pdf].
BertrandMarianne, DufloEsther, and MullainathanSendhil (2004), “How Much Should We Trust Differences-in-Differences Estimates?”Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119 (1), 249–75.
6.
ChayKenneth Y., McEwanPatrick J., and UrquiolaMiguel (2005), “The Central Role of Noise in Evaluating Interventions That Use Test Scores to Rank Schools,”American Economic Review, 95 (4), 1237–58.
7.
ChouShin-Yi, RashadInas, and GrossmanMichael (2008), “Fast-Food Restaurant Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity,”Journal of Law and Economics, 51 (4), 599–618.
8.
DesrochersDebra M. and HoltDebra J. (2007), “Children's Exposure to Television Advertising: Implications for Childhood Obesity,”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 26 (Fall), 182–201.
9.
DharTirtha and BaylisKathy (2011), “Fast-Food Consumption and the Ban on Advertising Targeting Children: The Quebec Experience,”Journal of Marketing Research, 48 (October), 799–813.
10.
EastlackJoseph O.Jr., and RaoAmbar G. (1989), “Advertising Experiments at the Campbell Soup Company,”Marketing Science, 8 (1), 57–71.
11.
Gamper-RabindranShanti (2006), “Did the EPA's Voluntary Industrial Toxics Program Reduce Emissions? A GIS Analysis of Distributional Impacts and By-Media Analysis of Substitution,”Journal of Environmental Economics & Management, 52 (1), 391–410.
12.
GrierSonya A., MensingerJanell, HuangShirley H., KumanyikaShiriki K., and StettlerNicolas (2007), “Fast-Food Marketing and Children's Fast-Food Consumption: Exploring Parents' Influences in an Ethnically Diverse Sample,”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 26 (Fall), 221–35.
13.
HarrisJennifer L., PomeranzJennifer L., LobsteinTim, and BrownellKelly D. (2009), “A Crisis in the Marketplace: How Food Marketing Contributes to Childhood Obesity and What Can Be Done,”Annual Review of Public Health, 30 (1), 211–25.
14.
HarrisJennifer L., WeinbergMegan E., SchwartzMarlene B., RossCraig, OstroffJoshua, and BrownellKelly D. (2010), “Trends in Television Food Advertising: Progress in Reducing Unhealthy Marketing to Young People?”research report, Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University, (revised April 22), (accessed June 18, 2012), [available at http://www.yaleruddcenter.org/resources/upload/docs/what/reports/RuddReport_TVFoodAdvertising_2.10.pdf].
15.
HawkesCorinna (2007), “Regulating Food Marketing to Young People Worldwide: Trends and Policy Drivers,”American Journal of Public Health, 97 (11), 1962–73.
16.
HoltDebra J., IppolitoPauline M., DesrochersDebra M., and KelleyChristopher R. (2007), “Children's Exposure to TV Advertising in 1977 and 2004: Information for the Obesity Debate,”research report, Federal Trade Commission (June 1).
17.
IOM (2005), Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
18.
KolishElaine D. and Lee PeelerC. (2008), “Changing the Landscape of Food & Beverage Advertising: The Children's Food & Beverage Advertising Initiative in Action: A Progress Report on the First Six Months of Implementation: July–December 2007,”research report, Council of Better Business Bureaus, (July).
19.
KunkelDale, McKinleyChristopher, and WrightPaul (2009), “The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children,”research report, Children Now, (December), (accessed June 18, 2012), [available at http://www.childrennow.org/uploads/documents/adstudy_2009.pdf].
20.
LodishLeonard M., AbrahamMagid, KalmensonStuart, LivelsbergerJeanne, LubetkinBeth, RichardsonBruce, and StevensMary Ellen (1995), “How T.V. Advertising Works: A Meta-Analysis of 389 Real World Split Cable T.V. Advertising Experiments,”Journal of Marketing Research, 32 (May), 125–39.
21.
MooreElizabeth S. and RideoutVictoria J. (2007), “The Online Marketing of Food to Children: Is It Just Fun and Games?”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 26 (Fall), 202–220.
22.
PeelerC. Lee, KolishElaine D., and EnrightMaureen (2009), “The Children's Food & Beverage Advertising Initiative in Action: A Report on Compliance and Implementation During 2008,”research report, Council of Better Business Bureaus, (October).
23.
PowellLisa M., SzczypkaGlen, and ChaloupkaFrank J. (2010), “Trends in Exposure to Television Food Advertisements Among Children and Adolescents in the United States,”Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 164 (9), 794–802.
24.
SeidersKathleen and PettyRoss D. (2007), “Taming the Obesity Beast: Children, Marketing, and Public Policy Considerations,”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 26 (Fall), 236–42.
25.
SharmaLisa L., TeretStephen P., and BrownellKelly D. (2010), “The Food Industry and Self-Regulation: Standards to Promote Success and to Avoid Public Health Failures,”American Journal of Public Health, 100 (2), 240–46.
26.
StoryMary and FrenchSimone (2004), “Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US,”International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity, 1 (3), 1–17.
27.
TullDonald S.,(1965), “The Carry-Over Effect of Advertising,”Journal of Marketing, 29 (April), 46–53.
28.
VakratsasDemetrios and AmblerTim (1999), “How Advertising Works: What Do We Really Know?”Journal of Marketing, 63 (January), 26–43.
