{"id":71179,"date":"2020-05-18T11:43:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T09:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aprifel-pp.mentalworks.biz\/?post_type=article_revue&p=71179"},"modified":"2020-05-18T11:43:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T09:43:15","slug":"playing-advergames-that-promote-fruit-increases-energy-dense-snack-intake-among-children","status":"publish","type":"article_revue","link":"https:\/\/aprifel-pp.mentalworks.biz\/en\/global-fv-newsletter-article\/playing-advergames-that-promote-fruit-increases-energy-dense-snack-intake-among-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing advergames that promote fruit increases energy-dense snack intake among children"},"content":{"rendered":"

As childhood obesity rates in Western societies continue to rise, health professionals and pro-health advocates are looking to use interactive media tactics for childhood obesity prevention. To compete against the overwhelming amounts of unhealthy foodbased \u201cadvergames\u201d, many pro-health initiates have begun implementing advergames and other forms of interactive media into their campaigns as well. These online games that are used to advertise a product, brand, or an organisation, are very popular with kids, as more and more children spend increasing amounts of time on advergaming websites1<\/sup>. While such interactive media technologies have the potential to influence children\u2019s food preferences and snack consumption, more research is needed to fully understand how advergames can be used as an educational or promotional tool to teach children about nutrition and healthy eating habits.<\/p>\n

Promoting food through advergames<\/h1>\n

Earlier research has shown that children who played an advergame highlighting energy-dense food ate more energydense snacks and fewer fruit and vegetables than did children who played an advergame highlighting fruit or those in the control condition2<\/sup>. Pempek and Calvert3 showed that children who played an advergame promoting fruit ate significantly more fruit than did those who played a version promoting energy-dense food. Because these studies faced some methodological difficulties (ie, small samples2,3<\/sup> or the use of different games in different conditions2<\/sup>), we re-examined the effects of advergames with large representative groups and with the same games that varied only according to the advertised content.<\/p>\n

We examined the effect of advergames that promoted candy or fruit on children\u2019s discretionary snack and fruit consumption. We were interested whether these games affected actual food intake of children, and whether this consumption differed according brand and product type. Furthermore, we were interested whether the advergame promoting fruit would be useful to stimulate fruit intake among children. We used an online memory game that was designed by a professional game designer. We randomly assigned 270 children (age 8\u201310 year) to one of the four different conditions. The conditions that we distinguished were one group of children that played:<\/p>\n