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UWA Business School
Assistant Professor Michele Roberts has won the 2010 BHP Billiton PhD Prize with her thesis examining the indirect effects of junk food advertising on children's food choices.

The prize, awarded by the Board of the Graduate Research School, recognises Assistant Professor Roberts' thesis as making the most outstanding contribution to a relevant research field, and was judged against all theses presented by UWA Business School students in 2010.

‘Basically,' explained Assistant Professor Roberts, ‘we wanted to know whether food advertising could alter social norms surrounding the consumption of these products.

‘I had just done a Master's degree in marketing and was interested in social marketing - the use of marketing strategies and tactics to bring about positive social change. Child obesity was all over the news and a landmark report had just been published by the Food Standards Agency in the UK which found that food promotion was directly contributing to children's suboptimal diets.

‘What interested me about the report was its conclusion that the [current] body of research underestimated the effects of food promotion, because it failed to account for indirect effects. I decided, somewhat naively, that I would find out what these indirect effects were. I found out that advertising influences children's peer groups and family groups and alters the perceived prevalence and perceived popularity of advertised foods.'

For example, found Roberts, food advertising encourages children and their families to believe that certain foods are more popular or widely eaten among their peers than is actually the case.

With the growing prevalence of digital media and social networking, the trend towards co-created content and advertising, says Roberts, will only increase the effects of food advertising.

‘Peers are forwarding ads to each other, creating and sharing their own ads, uploading ads to file sharing sites and giving products the ‘thumbs up' on their Facebook page, which is effectively a form of advertising,' said Roberts. ‘All this mediated exposure is likely to be more influential than TV advertising because it includes aspects of peer pressure and conformity.'

The reason why this is so concerning, explains Roberts, is because child obesity rates have increased in recent years. Obesity can cause a wide range of health complications, including physical problems such as cardiovascular disease, Type-2 diabetes and orthopaedic problems, and mental health problems such as low self-esteem, depression and bullying.

The good news, however, is that the effects of junk food advertising can be reduced by parents and carers.

‘It's important to minimise the amount of food advertising that your children are exposed to,' advised Assistant Professor Roberts. ‘Children and parents in my study were eating more during and after food advertisements - not just the advertised food, but any food.'

The reasons for increased food consumption after viewing food advertising could include people copying observed behaviours when they see others being rewarded for a particular behaviour - as described in social learning theory - or involuntary mimicking of behaviour - a phenomenon known as the Chameleon Effect.

Assistant Professor Roberts also suggests that parents and schools help children to read and understand food labels, and use these labels - rather than advertising - to compare the healthiness of different products.

‘It's empowering for children and gives them a sense of ownership over healthy eating,' said Roberts. ‘You can talk to your children about what the ad says versus what the label says - kids like to catch out companies, or indeed any adults, when they aren't telling the truth!'

Assistant Professor Roberts is now continuing her work in the area of food advertising. She is currently working on an ARC Linkage grant to measure the indirect effects of promotion on children's diets with her thesis supervisor Professor Simone Pettigrew, and linkage partners at the University of Adelaide and the Cancer Council. Results are expected by the end of this year.

Media references

Heather Merritt
Director, External Relations
UWA Business School
T: +618 6488 8171
M: 0419 950 027
E: [email protected]

Verity Chia
Communications Officer
UWA Business School
T: +618 6488 1346
E: [email protected]