Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10079

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Adams L, Geuens M.
Healthy or unhealthy slogans: that's the question...
J Health Commun. 2007 Mar; 12:(2):173-85
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content?content=10.1080/10810730601152755

Abstract:

An experiment was conducted to examine the effect on adolescents of different health appeals (healthy versus unhealthy) in ads for healthy and unhealthy perceived foods. The results did not reveal a main effect of product or slogan, but indicated a significant interaction effect between slogan and product. The healthy slogan only led to significantly more positive attitudes and purchase intentions when it promoted a healthy food product. An unhealthy food product received better results in combination with an unhealthy slogan than with a healthy one. This indicates that adolescents react better to ads in which the health appeal is congruent with the health perception of the product. Moreover, we took into account gender and health concern as potential moderators in the relationship between slogan and ad responses. Gender did not lead to different responses to healthy or unhealthy food ads, whereas health concern did interact significantly with the slogan type. Highly concerned adolescents responded more favorably to a healthy slogan in terms of attitudes. A necessary first step seems to be making adolescents more health conscious. A following step is to reinforce their positive attitudes toward healthy foods and turn these into real behavior.

Keywords:
MeSH Terms: Adolescent Adolescent Health Services* Advertising* Attitude to Health Female Health Behavior* Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Health Promotion* Health Surveys Humans Male Marketing Nutritional Status* Nutritive Value* Perception Questionnaires Sex Factors Social Marketing*