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As childhood obesity escalates to epidemic proportions, researchers at The University of Western Australia aim to tackle a contributing factor:  the promotion of unhealthy foods.

Dr Simone Pettigrew, Senior Lecturer in Marketing in UWA's Business School, and Assistant Professor in Marketing Michele Roberts, who is also completing a PhD, will team with researchers around the nation to conduct a three-State study.

They will survey 450 parents and 450 children aged from seven to 12 drawn from a variety of socio-economic groups to determine their separate responses to food advertising.

Dr Pettigrew said she hoped within two years the study would provide concrete evidence of the indirect effects of food promotion, most of which is junk food advertising that often enlists a well-known character (from Donald Duck to Miley Cyrus) or a free toy to boost appeal.

"As Michele found in her PhD research, children associate affection with being given junk food by their parents, so it's a very difficult problem.  Nobody wants their children to feel unloved," Dr Pettigrew said.

Dr Pettigrew, the mother of an eight-year-old boy and 13-year-old daughter, and Ms Roberts, the mother of boys aged from seven to 12, are concerned that their children are growing up in an ‘obesogenic' environment where more than 60 per cent of adults and more than 20 per cent of children are overweight or obese.  The researchers' children belong to the first generation in the Western world whose life-spans will be shorter than their parents' because of weight-associated problems.

Also involved in the project are researchers at The University of Adelaide (Professor Pascale Quester) and the Cancer Councils of New South Wales (Kathy Chapman) and South Australia (Caroline Miller), who sponsored the Pull the Plug on Food Advertising Campaign ( https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/editorial.asp?pageid=2208 ).

Recent Australian Research Council funding of $100,000 will be matched by $100,000 from the two Cancer Councils to provide a total of $200,000 for the project.  The researchers will submit their findings to State and Federal Government Health Departments. Along with her concern for children's health and consumer behaviour, Dr Pettigrew is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Research for Consumers ( www.jrconsumers.com ).

Media references

Dr Simone Pettigrew (+61 8)  6488 1437  /  (+61 4) 28 888 202
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716