Do Children tend to Consume Food Commercials? Content Analysis of TV Commercials and Evaluation of the Relationship between Recalling Them with Food Interests of Primary School Children in Shirvan, 2015

TV commercials are mentioned as factors influencing food choice of children. In the current study content of food commercial messages during children's program in two TV channels of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (I.R.I.B.) were analyzed. At the same time, any relationship between recalling food commercial messages with an interest in consumption of the same food products was investigated by an experimental study with primary school children, as well.
The study was conducted in two phases simultaneously. In the first part 73.5 and 35 hours of TV children's program of channels II and Education were recorded for a week (May 6th to 12th, 2015), respectively. Then the content of recorded commercial messages was analyzed based on a predetermined procedure. In the second part, 403 students (50% girls ) in grades fourth, fifth and sixth from four state primary school in Shirvan took part in a cross-sectional study and answered to the questions including duration of TV viewing, names of remembered TV food commercials, definition of desired TV food commercials and whether they like to consume the related food products via a self-administered questionnaire.
Part I: TV food commercial messages in view of frequency and duration ranked the fifth and the sixth, respectively. Snacks (fruit leather and plum paste) were the most frequent (75%) broadcast commercials. "Superiority over other food products" (47.4%) was the most frequent message used to promote sale of a food product. "High quality / accuracy in the preparation" (28.3%), "novelty" (21%) and "stimulating thirst and hunger" (15%) were the most frequent appeals of food commercials for stimulation of the audience for purchasing, respectively. Part II: More than half (62.5%) of the recalled food commercials were desired by the students (P Despite the dramatic decline in television food commercials compared to previous studies, the nutritional value of food commercials was still low. In addition, in some cases there was a significant relationship between remembering commercial message with interest in or consumption of the same food products. This study provides policy makers and officials with evidence to make effective decisions on food commercials directed at children.