The Influence of Language and a Visual Indicator on the Attitude Towards Healthy Food Advertisements.

Abstract

Different health campaigns are often focused on promoting healthy food choices. However, the number of people being overweight and obese continues to rise. The goal of this investigation was to investigate participants’ attitude towards various healthy food advertisements using three different types of language (basic, nutritional and indulgent) and a visual indicator (a hand using cutlery or a hand grabbing the drink in order to simulate the act of eating or drinking). The results might be helpful to persuade individuals to make healthier food choices in the future. A 2x3 within-subject design was used for the experiment with language (basic, nutritional and indulgent) and the use of visual indicator (yes or no) as the independent variables. Six healthy food advertisements were shown to participants and these participants were asked to answer several questions regarding their desirability, persuasiveness and credibility towards the healthy foods and the advertisements. The results showed a significant effect of language for credibility: basic language was considered more credible, but there were no significant results for desirability and persuasiveness. The use of a visual indicator also did not show any significant effect. This means that language or the use of a visual indicator might not help with people making healthier food choices when seeing a print advertisement, which promotes healthy food.