Children's evaluations of deceptive packaged foods within a conceptual model of food choice

The US food environment includes many packaged snack foods, which are sometimes marketed in ways that make them seem healthier than they are, suggesting they are deceptive to consumers. In this study, deception refers to marketing cues that may mislead children to think foods are healthier than nutritionally comparable alternatives. We examined two types of deceptive marketing strategies that are often geared toward children: (1) deceptive product-related characteristics of the foods (e.g., naming conventions and healthy reputations), and (2) deceptive packaging characteristics (e.g., designs featuring fruits and vegetables, highlighting certain nutrition information). Using a conceptual framework based on Shepherd's (1985) model, this study explored how types of deceptive product-related and packaging characteristics of snack foods influence children's health evaluations. Children (aged 6-8 years; N = 31) participated in a food matching task. Target foods (e.g., snack foods with deceptive characteristics) were presented alongside clearly healthy and unhealthy snack foods, and children indicated (1) the perceived health of target foods in relation to healthy and unhealthy foods and (2) their willingness to try target foods. Results showed that children's health evaluations were influenced by both deceptive product-related and packaging characteristics, believing that target foods were more like healthy foods. Children were most willing to try unpackaged foods and foods in fruit/vegetable packaging compared to target foods presented in deceptive packaging. Overall, these findings extend previous research by demonstrating that multiple marketing cues shape children's health evaluations. These findings suggest potential implications for packaging design and front-of-package labeling guidelines for snack foods.