marketing fun foods: a profile and analysis of supermarket food messages targeted at children
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Canadian Public Policy
Marketing Fun Foods: A Profile and Analysis of Supermarket Food Messages Targeted atChildrenAuthor(s): Charlene ElliottSource: Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Jun., 2008), pp. 259-273Published by: University of Toronto Press on behalf of Canadian Public PolicyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25463610 .
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Marketing Fun Foods: A Profile and
Analysis of Supermarket Food
Messages Targeted at Children
Charlene Elliott
School of Journalism and Communication Carleton University, Ottawa
L'obSsite infantile est un problfcme important qui requiert des solutions novatrices. Dans cet article, je
suggere que, face I ce probleme, les chercheurs et les decideurs politiques ne se limitent pas a remettre en
question la malbouffe et la publicity t616vis6e qui s'adresse aux enfants, mais qu'ils se concentrent plutot sur les messages, destines aux enfants, qui sont associes a divers produits et aliments vendus dans les
supermarch^s. Aprfcs avoir presente une analyse de contenu de ces divers ? aliments amusants ?(? fun foods ?)
con9us pour attirer les enfants : a) j'explique comment le fait de ? transformer ? certains aliments qui ne
sont ni des confiseries ni de la malbouffe en ? aliments amusants ? contribue a la hausse de l'ob&jite' infantile ; et b) je suggfere que, au moment de concevoir des politiques publiques visant a lutter contre 1 'otesite' infantile, ces pratiques de marketing qui donnent un sens ? amusant ? aux aliments pourraient etre prises en compte.
Mots cles : obesit6 infantile, emballage alimentaire, supermarches, aliments amusants
Childhood obesity is a significant problem that requires innovative solutions. This article suggests that
researchers and policy-makers move beyond a scrutiny of junk food and televised advertisements to children to focus on the messages targeted to children in the supermarket. Following a content analysis of fun foods
marketed to children, the article (a) outlines why the recoding of "regular" food into "fun food" contributes to the childhood obesity crisis, and (b) suggests how the meaning-making practices of food can be
acknowledged in the policy-making process.
Keywords: childhood obesity, food packaging, supermarkets, fun foods
The
growing number of overweight and obese
children is a significant public health problem,
requiring preventative public health solutions. Ex cess body weight affects over 26 percent of children
in Canada (Canadian Institute for Health Informa
tion 2006; House of Commons 2007), 30 to 35
percent of children in the Americas, and approxi
mately 20 percent of children in Europe (Crawford and Jeffery 2005, 15). It is linked to a range of
comorbidities, including type 2 diabetes, hyperten sion, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of
cancer (Library of Parliament 2005; World Health
Organization 2003). Being overweight also carries
significant psychological and social consequences
(Berg 2004).
While a number of interventions in school and fam
ily settings seek to address the childhood overweight/
Canadian Public Policy -
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260 Charlene Elliott
obesity problem, there is a weak evidence base as
to what actually works (Birch 2006; Crawford and
Jeffery 2005; Lobstein and Dibb 2005) and thus a
need to explore a range of solutions (Elliott 2005; Institute of Medicine 2005). Studies dealing with
the sociocultural aspects contributing to obesity, for
example, tend to focus on the same lineup of "sus
pects" when it comes to food?the sale and
consumption of sugary sodas (Malik, Schulze, and
Hu 2006; Murray, Frankowski, and Taras 2005;
Popkin 2006); the endless promotion of (and easy access to) junk foods; and the food-related media
messages, particularly on television, that encourage the consumption of high fat, high sugar foods
(Botterill and Kline 2006; Brownell and Horgen 2004; Chamberlain, Wang, and Robinson 2006; In
stitute of Medicine 2006; Schwartz and Brownell
2007; Schwartz and Puhl 2003; Wadden, Brownell, and Foster 2002).l Such studies pertain to what
Swinburn, Egger, and Raza (1999) christened the
"obesogenic environment"?referring to the fact that
the physical, social, and cultural environments of
most industrialized societies promote an excess of
calorie consumption over calorie expenditure. A re
cent review of biocultural and anthropological
perspectives called the obesity epidemic "a disor
der of convenience" and suggested that it stems from
"cultural and symbolic overvaluation of food" in a
world where "food-getting" is convenient (Ulijaszek
2007,185). Similarly, Brownell and Horgen (2004) coined the term "toxic environment" to refer to our
culture of promoting the overconsumption of fast
foods, high sugar snacks, and "unhealthful foods"
(see also Schwartz and Brownell 2007).
Overlooked in the current research related to the
sociocultural, obesogenic environment, however, is
an awareness of how the rapidly expanding category of "fun food" found in the Canadian supermarket
might fit into the complex problem of childhood
obesity. This paper provides such a probe. It draws
attention to the category of fun food and suggests that such an analysis might inform the development of a more robust policy framework to deal with the
childhood overweight/obesity problem in Canada.
Supermarket Food and the Packaging
of "Fun"
Largely missing from the scholarly discourse on food
messages and environmental cues is an awareness of
how food packaging and particular food products work
to target children and to encourage consumption. While
excellent and extensive research has been undertaken
regarding television advertising messages and mass
marketing campaigns, little research has focused on
the less "mediated" messages?those wrapped tightly around the product (i.e., through packaging) and those
inscribed in the product itself (i.e., through shape, size, and colour).2 Existing analyses routinely overlook a
basic mediascape that conveys food messages to all
children and to adults who have children: the super market.3 Social engineering remedies (Eagle et al.,
2004)?the attempt to combat childhood obesity by
applying "sin" taxes to junk food, restricting/banning soda sales in schools, or prohibiting the sale of fatty or sugary food in schools?tend to narrowly focus on
junk food. However, when we move beyond junk food, a clear knowledge gap exists. Researchers know very little about the types of foods (in the dairy, dry goods,
produce, meat, refrigerated and frozen, and beverage
categories) constituting children's fare. Yet most chil
dren make their first purchasing decisions in a food
store and wield tremendous influence over product selection. Children can influence up to 80 percent of a
family's food budget (Hunter 2002; Roy 2004), and
a similar degree of influence has been reported for
"tweens"4 (Reactorz Research 2003, 146).
Research Question and Paper Aims
This paper seeks to map the rapidly expanding cat
egory of fun food and fun food messages, and to
suggest how a careful focus on food packaging
brings some new and intriguing questions to the ta
ble when it comes to the social problem of childhood
obesity. Specifically, the study focuses on the mar
keting of fun foods in the Canadian supermarket: it
uses content analysis to create a profile of what con
stitutes children's fare in the supermarket retail
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Marketing Fun Foods 261
environment, and then provides a detailed assess
ment of these foods and food messages. The research
question is thus multipronged. First, what foods are
targeted to children in the Canadian supermarket, and what kinds of messages are communicated
through food packaging and marketing? Second,
what questions do these foods and food messages raise concerning children's eating habits and the is
sue of childhood overweight/obesity in Canada?
Specific objectives of the study are as follows:
1. Identify criteria for and categorize products within the fun food theme. (The study deals with
foods within the dry goods, meat, dairy, and pro duce categories that have been symbolically or
semiotically identified as children's fare. It does
not address confectioneries or junk foods.)
2. Code the products according to their package
images, names, and claims (including health
claims), as well as the foods themselves (in terms
of colour and shape).
3. Rank product categories by their percentage of
fun foods (i.e., determine what product category has the highest percentage of fun foods, second
highest, lowest, etc.).
4. Assess fun foods conceptually and thematically; that is, analyze what meaning can be drawn from
the package images and claims, as well as from
the foods themselves.
In providing a profile and analysis of fun foods mar
keted to children in the Canadian supermarket, this
paper seeks to reveal what meaning and relevance the
messages communicated from food packages/food stuffs might have to those interested in both policy and
the problem of overweight and obese children.
Method
The research employs content analysis to identify what foods are targeted to children in the Canadian
supermarket and the messages communicated
through packaging and marketing. Content analysis works to document trends, practices, and concepts within a range of "texts," and therefore provides a
particularly appropriate method for analyzing the
presence, meanings, and relationships of fun food
messages. Canada's Weston-owned Loblaws
Superstore was selected as the site for food coding.
George Weston Limited and Loblaw Companies Limited is the largest player in the Canadian food
retail market, both in terms of revenue and number
of stores. As such, it can be considered representa tive of the grocery environment available to
Canadians. Moreover, Loblaws "market" stores (also
operating under the banner of The Real Canadian
Superstore in Western Canada) stock roughly 50,000 food and non-food items combined. The expansive
product offering within Loblaws ensures that the
study is comprehensive and also generalizable. Most
stores carry the same national brands, and so the
products in an Ontario-based Loblaws will be con
sistent with one based in Alberta.5
Fun foods were purchased by the lead researcher
in three separate trips made to a single Loblaws
Superstore in December 2005.6 Fun foods were se
lected according to their packaging. Products were
photographed, stored, and subsequently coded. A
fourth trip to the store was made with the list of
selected products to ensure that no products had been
missed.
Children's fare was identified according to spe cific criteria: the product/packaging had to pointedly
target children using a combination of shape, col
our, size, package iconography, graphics, and
language. By drawing on a variety of cues that
marked the product as children's fare, ambiguity in
distinguishing between regular food and fun food was avoided. A single attribute was considered in
sufficient to signify fun food; for example, the
cartoon images used to promote everything from
pancake mix to brussel sprouts (e.g., the Jolly Green
Giant, Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima, and the
Pillsbury Dough Boy) did not alone suffice as an
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262 Charlene Elliott
indicator of fun food. Similarly, products were not
selected according to predetermined or presumed classification of what comprises children's food.
While adults may consider Kraft Macaroni and
Cheese or Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli as typical foods for children, such products were not selected
as part of the sample unless the package explicitly
appealed to children. The fun foods selected in
cluded at least two of the following indicators:
direct claims or allusions to fun and play on the
package;
the use of cartoon iconography, often supported
by funky lettering, pointedly directed toward
children (e.g., Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, and
a range of anthropomorphized animals, charac
ters, and objects);
tie-ins with children's television programs, mer
chandise, or films (e.g., SpongeBob Square
Pants, Barbie, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie-the
Pooh);
puzzles, competitions, or games unambiguously
targeted at children; and
the foregrounding of strange shapes, unusual col
ours, and unconventional product names or
flavours.
The latter requires some elaboration. Criteria for
unusual shapes, colours, product names, and fla
vours were set against what the "normal" or expected
shape, colour, and so on might be, and whether the
product "flavour" was discernable as an actual
flavour. Decision making was not arbitrary, as the
product packaging frequently emphasized the un
conventional shape, colour, or taste as a unique
selling feature. In terms of shape, for example, Jane's Kids sells (as the front of the package states)
"fun-shaped" breaded chicken nuggets in Buzz
Lightyear-inspired shapes. The shape is a unique
selling proposition. President's Choice Mini Chefs
line markets "Jungle Buddies" chicken nuggets in
the shape of zoo animals. Chicken nuggets in
frequently come in the shape of giraffes, elephants, or spaceships, so these products were included in
the sample. Along the same lines, the packaging on
Kool-Aid Magic Switchin' Secret Crystals empha sizes that the beverage is a "secret colour!", while
the package of Kool-Aid Magic Changin' Cherry Drink Crystals foregrounds the "GREEN powder which turns BLUE, but tastes like CHERRY!" Un
conventional product names or product flavours
include Kellogg's Froot Twistables fruit snacks in
Tropical Storm flavour, Jell-0 King of the Lunch
Box pudding in Chocolate Splat flavour, and Black
Diamond Cheddarific cheestrings. While this list
ing provides instances, the point is that "tropical
storm," "chocolate splat," or "cheddarific" are not
discernable flavours per se.
Significant exclusions pertained to both the type and package size of the food. Since the research is
interested in creating a profile of children's food
outside the category of junk food, candies, chips, and sodas were excluded, along with the array of
snack cakes (e.g., Twinkies, Joe Louis). Frozen nov
elties such as fruit and ice pops, however, were
included in the study, as such products could not be
dismissed as mere junk food. As the sample was
culled from a Loblaws Superstore, all club-pack
products (bulk-sized versions of products) were ex
cluded. When the same product came in different
sizes, only one size was included in the sample.
A total of 367 products were purchased for cod
ing, and 36 variables were recorded for each product. Each item was identified in terms of brand, product
name, food category (i.e., dry goods, meat, dairy,
refrigerated and frozen, beverages, and produce), and food type (i.e., breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack,
beverage, or mixed/variable). Twenty-six variables
pertained to the packaging itself (i.e., the package
semiotics), focusing on both the graphics and lan
guage of the package. This included, among other
things, questions on the dominant package colour(s),
the use of cartoons to attract attention, cross
merchandising appeals, and verbal claims. Coders
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Marketing Fun Foods 263
noted whether nutrition claims were made on the
front of the package, identified any "unique" product
claims, and detailed whether a game or activity adorned the back of the package (and if so, what
type). Another series of variables pertained to the food
itself?whether, for example, the product is unusually coloured for the product (i.e., blue fries, rainbow fruit
roll-ups), unusually shaped (i.e., animals, letters), or
has other special/fun qualities?such as changing col
our, size, or shape (with the addition of milk/water), or even glowing in the dark. Nutritional information
was recorded for all products.
Two graduate students were involved in the prod uct coding. Following several training sessions, they
independently coded identical products until intercoder
reliability reached higher than .80. Sixteen products, or 4.4 percent of the sample, were randomly selected
and coded for the intercoder reliability test, showing a
.90 agreement level between coders.
Results
A total of 367 grocery store products were analyzed in light of both their package semiotics (verbal and
graphic) and the foods themselves. In the sample se
lected, Kellogg's, the maker of numerous cereals, fruit
snacks, Pop Tarts, and Rice Krispie Squares, was the
brand offering the largest number of products explic
itly targeted at children (34 products, and over 9 percent of the sample). Betty Crocker came second, due to its
vast lineup of fruit snacks targeted at kids, ranging from
Fruit Gushers, Fruit Winders, and Tongue Talk Tattoo
Fruit Roll-Ups to Disney Princess fruit snacks or those
labelled with Scooby Doo, Shrek, Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles, Looney Tunes, or Care Bears. Other
brands with a significant presence in the arena of kids
foods include Danone (dairy), Kool-Aid (Kraft), Presi
dent's Choice Mini Chefs, and Schneiders.7 These four
brands all have at least 20 products in the sample.
Not surprisingly, the most dominant representa tion of fun foods was found in the dry goods category, with 222 products or approximately 61
percent of the sample. Within this category, cereals
predominated (43 percent of the dry goods were
cereals), followed by fruit snacks (40 percent), and
drinks (29 percent). Dairy came second, with 53
products or 14.4 percent of the sample targeted at
children. Cheese (including stringable and fresh) was the most represented (53 percent of all dairy
products), followed by yogurt drinks (26 percent) and yogurt (19 percent). The category of refriger ated and frozen foods (excluding meat) also had a
number of products targeted at children, with pizza
pops/ pogos and packaged lunches comprising roughly 11 percent of the total sample (5.7 and 4.9 percent,
respectively). The produce category, however, was sig
nificantly underrepresented: fruits and vegetables
comprised roughly 1 percent of the sample, being pro moted under only two brands.8 Children's fare in the
world of produce boils down to small apples and baby carrots?no other fruits and vegetables were specifi
cally targeted toward children.
Historically, children's fare has been contained
within the cereal aisle of the supermarket.9 Today, however, cereal's dominance has been joined by other
food products/categories?only 11.4 percent of the
sample constituted breakfast foods, whereas 65 per cent of the products coded?240 items?were
classified as a snack or mixed/variable food (i.e., a food
that could span more than one category, such as lunch
and snack; see Table 1). Seventeen percent of the sam
ple fell under the beverage category, as marketers
promote to children everything from sports drinks
(Kool-Aid Sport) and punch (McCain Zwak) to water
(Naya Sponge Bob Squarepants Aqua Kids Water).
Package Semiotics
Colour. Children's food packaging is dominated by four colours: blue, yellow, red, and green (see Ta
ble 2). Packages were coded for both their dominant
and secondary colours. The preference for blue and
yellow in children's marketing might be explained
by several factors. Blue is most frequently cited as
the favourite colour by North Americans (Pastoreau
2001), but it is also a logical choice for connoting "coolness" (Birren 1961)?such as that of
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264 Charlene Elliott
Table 1 Type of Food
Food Type Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent
Breakfast 42 11.4 11.4 Lunch 18 4.9 16.3 Dinner 4 1.1 17.4 Snack 139 37.9 55.3
Beverage 63 17.2 72.5 Mixed/variable 101 27.5 100.0
Total 367 100.0
Source: Author's compilation.
Table 2 Dominant Colour
Percent of Product
Colour Dominant Colour Secondary Colour
Blue 27.5 28.1 Yellow 18.5 20.1
Red 14.4 12.0 Green 10.4 9.0
Orange 8.4 6.8 Brown 6.3 5.1
Purple 4.9 4.9 Multicoloured 4.4 3.3 White 2.7 6.0 Black 0.5 2.5 Other 1.9 2.2
Total 100.0 100.0
Source: Author's compilation.
refrigerated dairy, refrigerated lunches, and non
meat frozen foods (which, combined, comprised 40
percent of the total sample of blue used as a domi
nant colour and 39 percent as a secondary colour).
Blue also dominated as a primary colour in the dry
goods category?primarily for cookies/biscuits
(36.7 percent), drink boxes (27.6 percent), and pud
dings/Jell-Os (53.8 percent). Yellow is the
second-highest ranking as both a primary and sec
ondary colour for packaging. Roughly 63 percent of the products in the dry goods category used yel low as the dominant colour, with cereals and fruit
snacks each making up 23.3 percent of the dry goods
sample. Yellow is a logical choice as both a primary and secondary package colour because it ranks high in conspicuity?that is, yellow has a high capacity to attract attention (Green 2001). Although the cell
sizes are small, there is a significant difference be
tween the dry food category and colour (Cramer's V = .272; p-value
= 0). This difference exists within
the other food categories as well.10 In sum, there are
overall statistically significant differences in colour
use in all fun foods. However, a larger study involv
ing non-fun food would be required to determine
whether the use of the culturally favoured "coolness"
of blue, combined with the conspicuity of yellow, rep resents a unique attribute of child-targeted food. It may
simply reflect broader patterns of colour use in food
marketing.
Assumed Target Audience. By definition, fun foods
are targeted primarily at children. Coders classified
products according to whether the package appealed to children (ages 5-12), teenagers (12-17), children
and teenagers, or children and parents/adults.
Roughly 75 percent of the products were directed
solely at children, 16 percent might appeal to both
children and teenagers, and only 12.8 percent made
a specific appeal to parents on the package.11
Kellogg's Rice Krispies Squares Chocolatey Marsh
mallow-flavoured cereal, for example, displays the
cartoon mascots of Snap! Crackle! and Pop! but also
has a bold red oval on the front of the box with the
word "MOM" in bright yellow caps. The oval has
an arrow pointing to the side panel, in which text
addressed to "Mom & Dad" explains that "Kellogg's
SQUARES cereal" contains whole grains, seven
essential nutrients and no trans fats, and "is a
GREAT TASTING way to provide children with ...
nutritional goodness." Parents are also informed that
"children who eat breakfast are more likely to adopt
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Marketing Fun Foods 265
other healthy lifestyle habits like being physically active." 12 President's Choice Mini Chefs brand?a
line of products developed specifically for children
ages five to ten?also uses pointed appeals to par ents on the packages. Yellow check marks on the
front of the packages indicate the product has no
hydrogenated oils and no artificial flavours or
colours. Some packages even display a cartoon mag
nifying glass on the front of the box, which explains to parents that the product "contains hidden vegeta bles." (These appeals will be discussed in greater
depth in the Discussion of Results.)
Font and Graphics. The signalling of fun food is
done largely through font and graphics?84 percent of coded products used either a cartoonish script or
a crayoned font (suggesting a child's handwriting) to identify itself as children's fare. Three out of four
products also had a cartoon image on the front of
the box?predominantly an anthropomorphized ani
mal or figure (37 percent) or the cartoon image of a
human boy or girl (19 percent). Interestingly, almost
one-quarter of the sample (23 percent) pictured the
cartoon image engaged in some type of sport, such as
skateboarding (3 percent), snowboarding (2.7 percent),
biking (0.8 percent), or soccer (1.4 percent). Twenty five percent of the sample also showed cartoon images
engaged in sports on the back or side of the box.
Appeals to Fun and Value Systems. Fun foods, as
mentioned, are explicitly coded as fun to children.
Beyond the use of cartoon graphics and fonts, some
packages (8.7 percent) directly reference fun with
descriptors such as "fun to eat" or claims that "when
ever you eat them, you'll agree they spell fun."
Connections to fun are most frequently linked di
rectly with the food, as in "fun fried potatoes," "fun,
smile-shaped potatoes," "fun shapes, colours and
fruit flavours," and "nutrition and fun, all in one."
Sometimes the names of the foods include the word
fun, as with President's Choice Mini Chefs
Funshines Biscuits and Schneider's line of Lunch
Mate Fun Kits, in which children "build" their own
"lunch" out of cookies, icing, and sprinkles. Fun is
also connoted by the use of unusual product names
and flavours (38 percent), such as Bug-A-Licious
pasta, Cha-Cha Cheezy macaroni and cheese,
Chocolate Splat pudding, and Screamin' Green Ap
ple Fruit Gushers fruit snacks. Finally, fun can be
indicated by direct, verbal claims to the product's
unique characteristics: 18.3 percent of the sample
verbally emphasized the food's interactive qualities
(e.g., food is stackable, stretchable, peelable,
shredable) or its transformative properties (e.g., food
changes colour, size, or shape).
Reinforcing this theme is the use of both cross
merchandising claims and games or activities. One
out of every ten products urges kids to "collect
points," "enter a contest," or use a code (on or in
side the package) for a free download. Three of every ten products offer a game or activity on the back of
the package. The standard mazes, word searches,
and find-an-item games are found not only on ce
real boxes (9 percent) but on yogurt tubes, lunch
kits, biscuits, and cookies. Packages also encour
age kids to interact with a web site (10.9 percent). Some even provide a game to play using the food
itself (3 percent). Remarkably, only 1.6 percent of
all products coded?6 out of 367 foods?had nutri
tion-related activities on the back of the package.13 This extremely low percentage affirms the weak
correlation between fun and nutrition. Fun, in the
world of food, is not about nutritional awareness.
Nutrition Claims. Despite the paucity of games or
activities related to nutrition, fun food still claims
to be nutritious food; 62.7 percent of all products make one or more nutrition claims on the front of
the box. Products contain a Smart Spot! or nutrition
seal (8.4 percent), claim to be low fat (10.6 percent), a source of calcium (10.8 percent), or to be made
with real fruit juice (9.2 percent).14 Almost 9 per cent (8.7 percent) of products emphasize that they are trans-fat free. What proves interesting about
these phenomena is the relationship between nutri
tion claims and actual product nutrition.15
Using criteria established by the Center for Sci ence in the Public Interest (n.d.) for identifying
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266 Charlene Elliott
foods of poor nutritional quality,16 it was found that
326 products or 89 percent of children's fun foods
could be classified as "of poor nutritional quality" due to high levels of sugar, fat, or sodium. Of these
products, 62.7 percent have one or more nutrition
claims on the front of the box. However, over 75
percent of products (22 out of 29) that have a Smart
Spot! or nutrition seal on the front of the package also contain over 10 grams of sugar per serving, a sugar level classified as high in Fitzhugh and Lobstein's
(2000) nutritional profile of children's food products. Almost all of the products (21 out of 22) that claim to
be low fat contain over 10 grams of sugar per serving. And 79 percent of products (19 out of 24) that claim
to be a source of calcium are an equal source of high
sugar. Made with "real fruit juice," in approximately 83 percent of cases (15 out of 18 products), equally
brings a high sugar content along with the claim. Simi
larly, products with nutrition claims may equally be
high in fat or high in sodium.17
Package and Food Observations. Fifty-five percent of products were packaged for portability, encour
aging children to take food with them. Some
packages were made for small hands (15 percent) or were unusually shaped (17 percent).18 Sometimes
the food itself was "child sized" (i.e., made for small
mouths; 26.7 percent) or unusually shaped. Over
one-quarter of the foods (28.3 percent) were in the
form of animals, fish, shapes, letters, or twisted or
rolled up. In a similar vein, one-quarter of the foods
(25.6 percent) had unique qualities; they were in
teractive (18.3 percent), changed colour (1.1
percent), or transformed in some fashion (1 percent).
Interactivity means that children could peel or
stretch?or were deliberately intended to engage
with?the food, as is the case of many fruit snacks
or portable cheese strings. Several products, such
as Kool-Aid Magic Changin' Cherry Drink Crys tals and Switchin' Secret Crystals, change colour
during the mixing process. And in the case of Quaker Dino Eggs' Instant Oatmeal, mini dinosaur eggs in
the oatmeal "hatch" into coloured sugar dinosaurs
with the addition of boiling water. Most noteworthy
is that one in five foods is unusually coloured for
the product itself. Interestingly, the two most popu lar hues?multicoloured (10 percent) and blue (3
percent)?rarely occur in nature.
Discussion of Results and Implications
This study breaks new ground in analyzing the food
messages available to children in the supermarket. It reveals that fun food is not localized in the cat
egory of junk food, and that the supermarket
provides a vibrant source of ideas about food and
children's relationship with food. The data analysis further reveals that "regular" food is marketed as
"fun" to children using a mixture of cartoons, unu
sual colours, strange shapes, interactivity, and
portable packaging. While researchers interested in
childhood obesity may question the nutritional com
position of such foods, I would like to suggest that
a strict look at calories, fat, or sugar grams misses
the point; it overlooks the ways that fun food mes
sages work to create a particular relationship with
food itself. The significance of such marketing is,
in fact, that these food messages create difficulties
in (a) children's relationship with food, (b) fairly
deciphering package semiotics, and (c) developing reasonable nutrition plans for children. These diffi
culties must be acknowledged in order to develop more
effective policies to combat childhood obesity.
Implications for Children's Relationship with Food It is quite clear that many supermarket foods tar
geted at children and symbolically positioned as
children's fare are defined in terms of their opposi tion to regular or adult food. Regular food is not
shaped into stars or castles; it is not wildly coloured
and does not magically change hue or shape. Chil
dren's fare, in contrast, is fun; by definition, it is
edible entertainment, to be consumed for reasons
that have little to do with sustenance or nutrition.
Consider, for instance, Yoplait's Kosmo Koolbery and Sourz Vortex Tubes?the package instructs
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Marketing Fun Foods 267
children to hold these yogurt tubes to the light for
two minutes and then "go into the dark to watch the
tubes glow." Betty Crocker's Tongue Talk Tattoo
Fruit Roll-Ups have "tattoos" painted on the fruit
snack with which kids can dye their tongues. Dare
Viva Puffs presents an equally entertaining vision
of its product, instructing, "There are many ways to
eat a Viva Puffs cookie. Peel it! Smash it! Bite it!"
Instances of this abound. The presentation of food
as entertainment is clearly problematic: consider
ing that behaviour modification programs for obese
adults pivot on the cardinal rule that food should
never be used as entertainment, sport, or distrac
tion?themes that form the core of children's foods.
This point must not be glossed over. Adult weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers emphasize that particular relationships with food?eating for
entertainment or distraction?work to make adults
fat. Recent academic research on food psychology
supports this view (Wansink 2006). Yet the very
eating practices that are widely acknowledged to
make adults fat are precisely the eating practices
being taught to children through the messages of
fun food. Fun food, regardless of the food's nutri
tional composition, presents and creates a
relationship between children and food that may be
problematic.
While the precise relationship between fun food
and childhood obesity has yet to be fully examined, current research has established a positive correla
tion between "exposure" and food preferences in
children (Horgen, Choate, and Brownell 2001;
Wadden, Brownell, and Foster 2002), and has shown
that early experiences with food direct future pat terns of food consumption (Birch 1996; Roy 2004). Since dietary practices begun during childhood of
ten produce lifelong patterns (Nader et al., 2006), it
is possible that fun foods work to create a space in
which children become accustomed to the "unnatu
ralness" of food and learn to appreciate the value of
food as fun, sport, or distraction, rather than as a
source of nutrition. This speculation is supported
by Eagle et al. (2004, 51), who note that "over 80
percent of obese adolescents sustain their obesity in adulthood . . . primarily because dietary habits
that are developed when young persist over time."
De-seasonalization of Food. That fun food poses a
problematic relationship with food is thrown into
high relief when one considers that fun food can
now be found throughout the supermarket. While
explicit packaged appeals to children were previ
ously contained within the cereal aisle, the research
revealed that breakfast foods comprised only 11.4
percent of the total sample. Almost 90 percent of
products coded fell outside the breakfast foods cat
egory. One might label this development the
"cerealization" of children's foods, but a more
nuanced understanding emerges by applying de
Cordova's (1994) concept of de-seasonalization to
the world of food. In his historical analysis of
Disney, de Cordova traced the rise of mass merchan
dising of Mickey Mouse to children throughout the
1930s. One of the key barriers to selling toys, de
Cordova revealed, was the fact that parents linked
the purchasing of toys to particular seasonal events, such as birthdays or Christmas. The marketing gen ius of Disney lay in its capacity to transform toy
purchasing into an everyday occurrence so that par ents did not need a special occasion to prompt a
purchase. Arguably, a similar transformation has
occurred with children's foods. While fun food pre
viously has been limited to a brightly frosted and
uniquely shaped birthday cake or a Saturday morn
ing ritual of creating peanut butter ladders on toast, it has now become de-seasonalized (and equally de
cerealized). Fun food can comprise every eating
experience?a breakfast of Post Strawberry Blasted
Honeycomb Cereal and McCain's Tropical Junior
Juice, a lunch of Heinz's Disney Winnie-the-Pooh
Pasta with blue raspberry Kool-Aid Jammers and
Jell-O's King of the Lunch Box Chocolate Splat
pudding, and dinner of Jane's Kids Buzz Lightyear Chicken Nuggets. Snacks might include Yoplait's Plutonic peach yogurt tubes, Black Diamond
Cheddarific Cheestrings, or Betty Crocker's Fruit
Gushers (Mystery Flavour). It is not the case that
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268 Charlene Elliott
food should be dull; however, when every eating
experience can be an entertainment experience, the
relationship with food assumes a very different com
plexion. Food becomes framed as entertainment, both premised on and emphasizing the artificiality of what is being consumed. Remarkably, it is only in the world of children's food that artificiality is
actually framed as a selling feature.
Food Portability. The high percentage of portable foods (55 percent) also implicates children's rela
tionship with food. Indeed, it proves helpful to
package foods that fit easily into a lunch bag or that
can be held in small hands. Many portable products within the sample, such as yogurt tubes, cheese
strings, baby carrots, and small containers of fresh
cheese, contribute to a healthy diet. However,
portability can also encourage the idea of eating
anywhere, any time, or all the time. Christie's box
of PT Barnum's Animal Crackers Snack Paks ex
claims "Snack Paks! Before play. Snack Paks! In
the park. Snack Paks! To share." Kellogg's box of
Chocolately Chip Eggo waffles similarly recommends
an "all the time" treatment of food: "Have you thought about Eggo Waffles on-the-go? You can take Eggo
Waffles with you in the car, to work, or on the bus to
school. Really, there's no place you can't say 'Leggo
my Eggo.'" The message that food is always avail
able, always consumable, is one that strongly
encourages constant eating (see Wansink 2006)19; it is
not a healthy message to be sending to children.
The Problems of Package Semiotics
One of the most problematic aspects of fun food
packaging is that, while fun food now spans the
nutritional spectrum?from healthy to decidedly
unhealthy?identical marketing techniques are used
to "cue" children. For example, President's Choice
Mini Chefs line of products, which targets children
ages five to ten, adheres to precise standards: each
product must be free of artificial colours, flavours,
sweeteners, and trans fats, and sugars must be 25
percent lower (at minimum) than the industry stand
ard. But this line uses the same iconography and
strategies as every other fun food product. Cartoon
images adorn the cover of every box, and the pack
age text is a combination of bubble font and childish
script. Even the names of the products?PC Mini
Chefs Bug-a-licious! pasta in tomato sauce, Zookies
animal crackers, Funshines biscuits and Wheelie
Dealies pasta with meat?prove as fun as (and not
particularly different from) Nestle's Bugz with
Gummi Bugz ice pops, Ritz Scuba crackers, Heinz
Zoodles pasta in tomato sauce, Dunkaroos, or Sch
neider's Lunch Mate Fun Kits. Techniques for
attracting children to the President's Choice Mini
Chefs Zippy Fruit! (with no added sugar, colour, or
artificial flavours) are identical to those of the sugar laden and wildly coloured Fruit Gushers, Fruit
Loops Twistables, and so forth, which sit on the
same grocery store shelves. Furthermore, the
healthier products?such as yogurts, cheese strings, and chicken nuggets?generally push the same
themes of interactivity, artificiality (in shape and
colour), and sport. Green yogurt in glow-in-the-dark
tubes, bug-shaped pasta, pink-and-brown-striped fresh cheese?semiotically, these prove no differ
ent from the high sugar, multicoloured Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms or trans-fat laden Magic Shell
topping and Dunkaroos.
The use of identical strategies to market healthy and unhealthy fun foods raises strong questions about the validity of media literacy programs as a
means of arming children against the persuasive
techniques of advertising in the context of decipher
ing package design. Referring specifically to
televised advertising to children, Hastings et al.
(2003) and Wilcox (2004) concluded that the effec
tiveness of media literacy for children is slim (and it is likely completely ineffective for young chil
dren). Healthy food can be fun?but if one cannot
distinguish between healthy or unhealthy, then how
are healthy choices to be made? Bill Jeffery, national
coordinator of the Center for Science in the Public
Interest (Canada), argues that "nutrition is a credence
attribute of food; it cannot be accurately estimated by consumers" (2006, Slide 22). If nutrition cannot be
estimated by parents using packaging cues, it most
certainly cannot be accurately estimated by children.
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Marketing Fun Foods 269
Remarkable about the apparently "healthy" fun
food products is that they, too, promote an unhealthy
rapport with food. President's Choice Mini Chefs
brand, which advertises itself as healthy (and fun) fare for children, not only uses the "food as distrac
tion" theme, but also prints a magnifying glass icon
on the front of select packages to tell parents that
the product "contains hidden vegetables." One might
reasonably wonder why vegetables should be hid
den, as well as the point at which one should break
down and inform children that vegetables do indeed
exist (and might actually be consumed on purpose rather than by accident).
Concluding Remarks
This paper addresses some pressing issues surround
ing the marketing of foods to children in the
supermarket. While much research has focused on
the relationship between television advertising, junk
food, and childhood obesity, a knowledge gap ex
ists when dealing with the question of packaging and other categories of food. In examining the con
temporary "foodscape" through supermarket
merchandising practices, Winson has coined the
term pseudo food to refer to edible products "that
are typically high in sugar and/or fat. .. [and] low
in other nutrients such as proteins, minerals, and
vitamins" (2004, 302). In this pseudo-food catego
rization, Winson includes such products as "salty snacks" (such as potato chips), chocolate bars, fruit
punches, and sugary cereals. But fun foods provide a
different kind of categorization?one not classified
primarily in nutritional terms, but according to par ticular package and product appeals to fun and play.
Knowledge of the messages in and around su
permarket fun foods will aid in developing a more
complex understanding of the social environment
contributing to childhood obesity. It will allow re
searchers and policy-makers to alert parents and
children to some of the less obvious messages that
comprise the mainstay of our consumption experi ence. Parents may vigilantly avoid buying junk food
and candy for their children, yet, apparently untrou
bled, purchase fruit snacks that contain equally high amounts of sugar. Second, fun food cues (embed ded in packaging, labelling, and foodstuffs) work
to identify children's foods to both children and
adults. While children respond positively to food
products that are created especially for them ("Green
Eggs" 2002,9; Howell 2003,18-19), parents equally
rely on signifiers of fun foods, since they try to "pro vide foods that they think their child will like"
(Schwartz and Puhl 2003). This reliance may result
in a less nutritious diet than parents realize.
Most critical is the finding that much of our cur
rent focus is misguided. While banning soda pop and confectionary products or reducing children's
exposure to sugary-food advertising on television
are good strategies, they fail to confront the crux of
the issue?the ways in which children are social
ized to play with and value the artificial in food from
a very young age.
Fun food is not merely a marketing technique; it
has become a set of meaning-making practices that
may have serious health consequences for children
and that pose serious challenges for parents, educa
tors, and policy-makers. Fun food speaks to issues
at the micro, meso, and macro levels: it pertains to
children's individual relationship with and under
standing of food and food messages (micro); corporate
practices, audience decoding strategies, and attempts at local regulation through school food policies (meso); and broader attempts to create policy on childhood
obesity (macro). Policy changes need to be made in
light of the fact that fun food is a unique category that
poses special challenges. For example,
Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating, updated in 2007, should acknowledge the expansive cat
egory of fun food (as well as make
recommendations on how parents might deal
with this);
Canada's new labelling guidelines do not con
tain provisions for multiple or contradictory
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270 Charlene Elliott
nutrition claims (e.g., foods that may be low in
fat but high in sugar); and
Canada's new labelling guidelines do not con
tain provisions for iconography and cartoons
(i.e., less nutritious food is coded in precisely the same fashion as healthy food).
Overall, it is critical to recognize that fun food en
gages the senses in a hyper-sensual way?valuing
interactivity, play, entertainment, novelty, and ar
tificiality. These meaning-making practices, while fun, can create an unhealthy rapport with food. It is this
rapport?the relationship presented to food?that re
quires more focus in the childhood obesity debate.
Notes
Funding for this research was generously provided by the
Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The author would
like to thank graduate students Melissa Fennel I, Lee-Anne
Peluk, and Cathy Allison for coding assistance. Heather
Pyman, Andre Turcotte, and Anton Maslov provided ex
cellent support in the data analysis. The author is grateful
to professors Joshua Greenberg and Sheryl N. Hamilton
for suggestions on earlier drafts.
1 Note that the flagship report published by the Cana
dian Population Health Initiative, Overweight and Obesity in Canada: A Population Health Perspective, recom
mended that children's media restrict "advertising of
'junk* foods during peak viewing times for children"
(Raine 2004, 55).
2 As the US-based Institute of Medicine Committee
on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth
(2006) reports, "television advertising remains the domi
nant form of marketing reaching children ... that is
formally tracked" (xii). One key challenge the commit
tee identifies in its comprehensive review of studies
related to food marketing to children and youth is that
"virtually all of the published scientific research has fo
cused on advertising?and television advertising in
particular" (xiv).
3 One notable exception is the UK Food Commission
study titled Children's Food Examined: An Analysis of 358 Products Targeted at Children (Fitzhugh and Lobstein
2000). Winson (2004) also insightfully maps supermar ket merchandising practices more generally.
4 Over the last decade, the "tween" market has been
established as a clear category of consumers by market
ers and advertisers. The tween market (ages 8-12, and
sometimes defined as 10-12) is seen as straddling chil
dren and teenagers. There is a vast marketing, business,
and academic literature on this concept.
5 Moreover, the coding of an extensive product lineup
makes it possible to create profiles of different grocery chains or stores with smaller inventories. It is merely a
matter of acquiring an inventory list and calculating the
percentage of fun foods contained within that list.
6 Three extra items?newly launched President's
Choice Mini Chefs products?were added to the list in
February 2006. (The lead researcher was unable to ob
tain a list from Loblaws of all the products carried in the
particular store employed in the study. However, since
Loblaws inventories its products by a barcode or stock
keeping unit (SKU), this list would not have assisted in
the selection process.)
7 Both President's Choice and Schneiders are Cana
dian brands. President's Choice is the private label of
Loblaw Companies Limited, and Schneiders is part of
Maple Leaf Foods.
8 The two brands were President's Choice Mini Chefs
and Tanimura & Antle.
9 Snap, Crackle and Pop made their debut as brand
characters for Kellogg's Rice Krispies in 1933. The mar
keting of cereals to children, however, was largely a
post-war phenomenon: Kellogg's Sugar Smacks were in
troduced in 1952, Tony the Tiger appeared as a mascot
for Frosted Flakes in 1953, and General Mills' Trix in
1954. Kellogg's Fruit Loops, Quaker's Cap'n Crunch, and
General Mills' Lucky Charms were all launched in 1963.
10 Cramer's V and p-values for colour use within each
food category: Cramer's V p-value
Dairy .703 .000
Frozen foods .496 .000
Meat and seafood .745 .233
Produce .667 .329
11 Note that the mere use of a nutrition mark does not
constitute a specific appeal to parents or caregivers.
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Marketing Fun Foods 271
12 The "nutritional goodness" of this cereal might be
challenged given that it also contains 12 grams of sugar
per serving.
13 These activities include word finds and matching
games that teach about nutrition.
14 Other nutrition claims include no artificial flavours/ colours (7.4 percent), a source of "X" essential nutrients
(6.5 percent), preservative free (5.7 percent), peanut free
(3.2 percent), a source of whole wheat/fibre (3 percent), and organic (1 percent).
15 A full nutritional profile of the 367 fun foods is the
subject of a separate paper emerging from this study.
16 The Center for Science in the Public Interest (n.d.) has developed a set of guidelines entitled "Defining Foods
of Poor Nutritional Quality." Its nutrition standards were
adapted from those of the National Alliance for Nutrition
and Activity, a coalition of more than 300 organizations.
According to the Center's guidelines, foods of poor nu
tritional quality meet one or more of the following criteria:
> 35 percent of total calories from fat, excluding nuts,
seeds, and peanut or other nut butters (> 10 percent of
calories from saturated + trans fat)
> 35 percent added sugars by weight (Since most fruit
snacks contain some fruit juice, it is difficult from the
Nutrition Facts labels to distinguish fruit sugars from
added sugars. We assessed the nutritional quality of
fruit snacks using the amount of total sugars displayed
on the label.)
> 230 mg sodium per serving of chips, crackers,
cheeses, baked goods, French fries, and other snacks
> 480 mg sodium per serving for cereals, soups, pas
tas, and meats
> 600 mg sodium per serving for pizza, sandwiches,
and main dishes
> 770 mg sodium per serving for meals
Beverages of poor nutritional quality include soft drinks, sports
drinks, sweetened iced teas, and fruit-based drinks that contain
sweeteners and less than 50 percent real fruit juice.
17 While Health Canada under the Food and Drugs Act states that a low fat food contains less that 3 grams of fat
per serving, many children's foods have higher percent
ages. For instance, 87.5 percent of products that claim to
be trans-fat free also have over 3 grams of fat per serving.
Guidelines for classifying low fat can be found in the 2003 Guide to Food Labelling and Advertising at http://
www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/guide/
ch7ae.shtml#7.16. Also see Food and Drugs Act and Regu
lations [SOR/2003-11, s. 20] at http://laws.justice.gc.ca/ en/F-27/C.R.C.-c.870/232590.html. Health Canada iden
tifies as "healthy" products containing 480 mg of sodium or less per serving. Thirty percent of products claiming to be a source of calcium and 27.3 percent of products
claiming no artificial flavours/colours also had high levels
of sodium. Guidelines for high sodium were drawn from
the Center for Science in the Public Interest (n.d.).
18 Package shapes included an hourglass/pear-shaped
bottle (7.4 percent), tube (3.8 percent), triangular prism
drink pouch (3.5 percent), animal shape (1.1 percent), and
other (1.1 percent).
19 See also Tordoff's (2002) article "Obesity by Choice," which details an experimental study linking food
availability and obesity in rats.
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