ABSTRACT
Health-related claims or depictions of physical activity have become a common phenomenon in food advertising targeting children. Health message cues such as explicit statements of ‘walk regularly’ or ‘balance your diet’ along with an image of a walking person or a healthy dish appear on a large number of televised advertising for unhealthy foods and beverages. The birth of a new range of food products that are ‘better for you’ is the result of concerns over health and obesity. Children prefer products that are fun and made for kid tastes while parents prefer to buy a product that has healthy content for the family. Both explicit and implicit health-related messages work in a similar way in order to manipulate perceptions of food products. Nutritional marketing has appealed to many consumers through the use of nutritional and health claims that draw attention to the nutritional qualities or alleged health benefits of certain products.
