Ruhr University Bochum

Institute of Educational Sciences

Winter Term 2022/2023
Informelle Lernprozesse in digitalen Settings: Cyberbullying, Sexting und andere Phänomene
Prof. Dr. Marc Stadtler /Linda Froese

Influencing Through Advertisement: Advertisement

Strategies, Children’s Cognitive Development and
Effects on Eating Habits

Emel Kargin
[email protected]
108021102529
Contents
1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………2
2. Influencing Through Advertisement ..……………………….……………………………….…3
2.1 Media Literacy ………………………………………………………………………….…….5
2.2 New Strategies of TV Advertising …………………………………………….……..6
2.3 Internet Advertisement …………………………………………………………..……..6
2.4 Effects of Advertisements …………………………………………………………..….7
3. Social Media Influencer Marketing and Children’s Food Intake ..…………..…….8
3.1 Research Question ……………………………………………………………….………..8
3.2 Methods ………………………………………………………………………………………..8
3.3 Results ……………………………………………………………………………………………9
4. Discussion …………………………………………………………………………………………..……….9
4.1 Media Literacy and Internet Advertisement ………………………………….10
4.2 Effects of Underdeveloped Functions ………………………………….………..11
4.3 Mere Exposure Effect …………………………………………………………….……..12
4.4 Classical and Operant Conditioning ……………………………………..……….13
4.5 Theory of Mind ………………………………………………………………………….….13
4.6 New Strategies and Social Media Influencers …………………………..……14
5. Conclusions ……………..………………………………………………………………………………...15
6. Citations ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..18

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1. Introduction
Advertisements have been a big part of our social and economic structure since a very
long time. The changing of the times and various types of product and services being
promoted cause the need for a variety in the form and target groups of
advertisements. A type of advertisement that has a very wide and very impressionable
audience is the one directed at children.
It is easy to understand that exposure to advertisements, or any other content, has
impacts on children as well as adults. However, due to the stages in psychological
development, the impact that content has on children can not be expected to be the
same as the impact on adults.
Due to children’s high impressionability, it can be suggested that the impact of content
would be elevated as well. This makes the messages conveyed through advertisements
even more important when the target audience is made up of children. Although, the
naiveness of children is not an aspect that broadcasters may always keep in mind with
the aim of protecting them. At times, products being promoted to children are
unhealthy or unbeneficial, but as their impressionability makes them easier to
convince, they are still set as the target audience. In such cases, the problems that
children or their families face is not only loss of the monetary value of the product, or
conflicts within the families, but also health problems.
Due to children’s preference of certain foods, for example sweets, many junk food
advertisements are directed at children. Another reason unhealthy foods are being
promoted to children is also the children’s limited understanding of health and/or
consequences of an unhealthy diet. Although childhood obesity is a very chronic and
current problem in today’s world, this does not stop brands and broadcasters from
advertising unhealthy foods to children. Rather, there are new forms and strategies of
advertisements that reach children faster, easier, and possibly with better success. The
new social media platforms and social media influencers play a big role in the current
situation.

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In this paper, advertisement strategies targeted at children, children’s cognitive
development, social media influencing and their effects on eating behavior will be
examined in detail.

2. Influencing through Advertisement

In order to discuss how influencing takes place though advertisements, it would be
necessary to define advertisement. It is possible to define advertisement in numerous
different ways. According to Young (2008), the following are the defining features of
advertisement: Firstly, advertisements are paid and are thus a part of the economic
structure of a free market. The next necessity is that they are traditionally directed to
the mass rather than the individual. Lastly, advertisements are made up of various
types of persuasive and promotional forms of communication, which try to change or
influence the recipients beliefs with the help of carefully designed messages that are
attractive or tempting and may not always reflect the truth. Keeping these features in
mind, some cognitive skills would to be necessary in order to understand the intentions
and effects of advertisements. (Young, 2008 qtd in Diergarten et. al., 2014)
Some types of advertisements are directed at children, which define children as a
market factor. Through spending their allowances, money that they have earned doing
part-time jobs, or monetary gifts, children are seen to be a direct purchasing power.
They may also be seen as an indirect purchasing power, as they affect the purchases of
their parents or other relatives. In addition to expressing what they would like as gift
for special occasions, children also have a big influence on the daily purchases of their
parents, especially when it comes to sweets and fast-food. (Diergarten et. al, 2014)
Although these are some valid reasons to direct advertisements at children, another
reason would be that children are the adults of the future, and thus the main
purchasers of the future, so this could be seen as an investment to sell more in the
future. Advertisements leave an embedded notion of a brand and the associated
characteristics (Mattenklott, 2004 qtd in Diergarten et. al, 2014). These effects are
strived for in various ways depending on which age group is targeted. With younger
children the strategy may be to use colorful logos or slogans and jingles, whereas with

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older children the focus may be on the product features. This is because of the stages
of development in cognitive skills of different age groups. (Diergarten et. al., 2014)
The different strategies that are carried out are closely related to the theories of
learning. In the behavioristic perspective, classical and operant conditioning are ways
to explain how advertisements effect targeted groups.
As an example of behavioristic conditioning, when a product is advertised with pictures
that provoke positive emotions, the product would also be associated with such
emotions. In the operant conditioning, the purchasing behavior would be enhanced
when positive emotions surface when using or consuming a product. These take place
when such behaviors are also observed from others. The conditioning processes can
also be explained with the mere-exposure-effect, where repeated exposure to a
stimulus leads to an easier processing in the brain, which causes positive emotions that
are transferred to the stimulus itself. (Diergarten et. al., 2014)
There are three components that make up the process of advertising impact: cognitive
(„learn“), affective („feel“) and conative („do“). The cognitive component comes first,
however the order of the rest of the components depends on the involvement of the
consumer. (4). At this point, age is also a crucial element, as kids come in touch with
low involvement products more often, where after a product catches their attention
(learn), they buy (do) before they judge the product (feel). Kids are also highly affected
by their social environment, which shape their opinions and preferences. According to
the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion, kids are often persuaded by the
peripheral way, where they like individual characteristics of an advertisement, even if
they are not persuaded the central way, where the made arguments are taken into
consideration. (Diergarten et. al., 2014)
However, the long-term affects are achieved through the central way. The reachability
difference caused by age and due to age increasing media literacy can be explained
with this model. (Livingstone & Helsper, 2006 qtd in Diergarten et. al., 2014)

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2.1 Media Literacy
Potter (1998) believes that people with high media literacy have a wider perspective
and have the capability to interpret advertisements within their knowledge structure
based on various dimensions. Meanwhile, people with low media literacy are more
prone to accepting the superficial meanings without identifying controversies or ironies
of the messages conveyed in advertisements. According to Potter, the advanced skills
necessary for a critical approach are acquired only around the end of the elementary
school. For media literacy to be achieved, the following skills need to be acquired:
differentiation of reality and fiction, differentiation of program forms, understanding of
persuasive advertisement intention. (Potter, 1998 qtd in Diergarten et. al., 2014)
The differentiation of reality and fiction has two dimensions, the first being the
factuality, in the sense of identifying what is reality and what has been invented for TV,
the second dimension being the extent, to which that what is shown is similar to real
life people or events. This skilled is usually acquired in the ages of 8 to 11.
The differentiation of program forms refers mainly to the recognition of what is
advertisement and what is not. The difficulty level of recognition depends on how
evident the typical characteristics of the advertisement are. The defining characteristic
is the sales intent, which is directly related to the understanding of persuasive
advertisement intention. Although, realizing what is shown is advertisement does not
mean realization of the selling intent for kids, or that there are clients behind
advertisements, or that the message is aimed at a certain target group. (Diergarten et.
al., 2014)
Kids can only see the informative intention of advertisements, and not the persuasive
intention. A total understanding of the persuasive Intention encompasses four levels:
understanding that (1) the broadcaster has interests other than those of the audience
(2) the broadcaster wants to convince (3) that conviction-targeting messages are
distorted and (4) that distorted messages should be interpreted differently from
informative ones. (Oates et. al., qtd in Diergarten et. al., 2014). Recognition of the
persuasive intention was shown to be an ability possessed by 0% of 6 year-olds, 25% of
8 year-olds, and 44% of 10 year-olds. (Oats et. al., 2001 qtd in Diergarten et. al., 2014).

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However, a study by Nieding et. Al. (2006) showed that 44% of the 8 year-olds were
able to recognize the selling intentions of advertisements. It is believed that this
difference may also be related to the form of the advertisements, where traditional
advertisements are more easily recognized. (Nieding et. al., 2006 qtd in Diergarten et.
al., 2014)

2.2 New Strategies of TV Advertising

New Strategies of advertising have been developed for various reasons. For example,
the split-screen-advertisement runs simultaneously with the TV program in order to
avoid viewer rating decline in advertisement breaks. This form of advertisement also
makes it harder for children to distinguish between programming and advertising,
which in turn makes it harder for them to apply their knowledge about the persuasive
advertisement intentions. Another strategy is product placement in programs, which
increases familiarity with brands, especially effectively though the mere-exposure-
effect. The persuasion knowledge model explains how knowledge of the persuasive
intentions of messages leads to negative change of attitude.

2.3 Internet Advertisement

The classic forms of Advertisements in internet websites are mainly banners and pop-
ups. Although, pop-ups are misleading and intrusive, which leads to reactance. Another
form is in game advertisement, which have higher positive effects due to the
connection of the generated positive feelings during gaming to the brand and a less
obvious persuasion intent as well as feeling “in-flow” with the advertisements
enhancing instead of intruding on the experience. An Example is the Haribo in-game-
advertisement, where the gummies were to be collected as car fuel and banana peels
made the car stop. Although the aim of the messages conveyed in such advertisements
may be controversial, not many parents are concerned about advertising messages
directed at children on the internet.

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2.4 Effects of Advertisements
Feelings for an advertisement translates to having the same feelings for the brand,
which can be explained through models of conditioning. However, smaller kids seem to
like advertisements relatively more than older kids, because they are not as aware of
their intentions. This does not stop advertisers from trying to appeal to kids. They
target them with the use of funny, catchy slogans, appealing music, or the appearance
of celebrities. The main purpose is to cause an increase in sales, brand recognition and
passive brand recall. Besides these strategies causing the increase of the material
leading to conflict between kids and their parents/families, it also affects kids’ eating
habits. A problem that is born out of this situation also has a lot to do with the fact that
it is almost exclusively unhealthy foods that appear in advertisements, such as candy,
fast-food, or breakfast cereals, which are presented as healthy breakfast even though
its high content of salt, additives, fat and sugar. Another strategy to sell such products
is complementary toys, for example with McDonald’s Happy Meal. (Diergarten et. al.,
2014)
The messages conveyed in many advertisements also suggest that by consuming their
product(s) the buyer becomes more powerful, popular and cheerful. What kind of an
effect these advertisements have on kids and their health is an issue that needs
attention.
Today, it is not only TV advertisements that target kids. With the emergence of new
platforms on the internet, and children’s more and more active use of these platforms,
advertisements have also made their way onto the social media platforms. Besides the
old fashion banner or posts as advertisements, it is also very, if not more common for
advertisements to take place through social media influencer profiles. With the thriving
social media industry, it may be suggested that the this has become one of the most
ordinary types of advertisement that can reach much more people than the traditional
types of advertisements. (Diergarten et. al., 2014)
With children mostly idolizing the social media influencers, and their aforementioned
lack of media literacy, what is actually conveyed through the influencers and their
sponsors is of high importance. It may be, that they are endorsing unbeneficial, low

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quality or unhealthy products, which would have a bigger impact on children as it
would with adults. The following study by Coates et. al. (2019) has taken a closer look
into this issue.

3. Social Media Influencer Marketing and Children’s Food Intake

The study by Coates et. al. (2019) points out that despite the rapid increase in social
media advertisements, usage of social media among children as well as health
complications due to obesity, the impact of influencer advertisements of food on
children’s eating behavior has not been researched to this day. It is stated that
children’s digital media (online content) consumption is growing rapidly, which makes
it just more important to examine the effects of digital media and influencers on
children’s eating habits.

3.1 Research Question

Based on the information that celebrity endorsed foods on television have an
increasing impact on children’s preference or intake of these products, and that
children trust influencers due to familiarity, the following hypotheses have been made
by the researchers: “Children exposed to the social media marketing of snack foods
(healthy or unhealthy) would consume more snacks compared with the children
exposed to marketing for a nonfood item”, “Children exposed to the social media
marketing of unhealthy snacks would consume more unhealthy snacks compared with
children exposed to marketing for a nonfood item”, and “ children exposed to the
social media marketing of healthy snacks would consume more healthy snacks
compared with children exposed to marketing for a nonfood item”. (Coates et. al.,
2019)

3.2 Method
To test these hypotheses, the participants were set at the age of 9 to 11 because they
are an active group on social media. They were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions:
exposed to healthy food marketing, unhealthy food marketing and nonfood marketing

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(control). Pictures were posted by two of the top ranked YouTube video bloggers on
Instagram as they were holding the various products. During the experiment, the
children’s BMI, hunger, caloric intake and liking/ familiarity of the influencers were
measured.
To carry out the experiment, the children were asked to pay close attention to each
influencer’s Instagram profile on the laptop screen for one minute, and informed that
they would be asked about them in the questionnaire. After this procedure, the
participants were offered 4 snacks (jelly candy and chocolate buttons as unhealthy
snacks, and carrot batons and seedless white grapes as healthy snacks) in similar
quantities, of which none were visible on any of the test or filler images and told they
had 10 minutes to eat as much or as little as they liked. The remaining foods were then
weighed.

3.3 Results
The results showed that children in the unhealthy snack condition had consumed 26%
more calories overall compared to those in the control group (448.3 kcal versus 357.1
kcal) and 15% more than the participants in the healthy post group (388.9 kcal). It is
also worth noting that the participants in the unhealthy post group had consumed 32%
more calories from unhealthy snacks compared to those in the control group and 20%
more than the healthy post group. There were no significant difference in the calorie
intake or calories consumed from unhealthy snacks between the control and healthy
post groups. Although the difference in the total calorie intakes may not seem like
much, cohort studies have shown that an energy gap of 69 to 77 kcals per day is
enough for a child to become overweight. (Scholtens et. al., 2011 qtd in Coates et. al.,
2019). As this experiment by Coates et. al. shows, the difference was 91 kcals, which
would in time unavoidably lead to weight gain.
(Coates et. al. 2019)

4. Discussion

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4.1 Media Literacy and Internet Advertisement
The described study shows what kind of an effect exposure to content can have on
children. Rather than focusing on advertisement of brands, the focus of the study by
Coates et. al. lies on messages and the impressionability of children of certain ages. As
the first part of this paper has stated, knowledge about advertisement, more
specifically media literacy has an important role to play in such scenarios.
The fact that foods/products were being advertised by influencers also effects the
recognition of advertisements. It had been stated that the ability to differentiate reality
and fiction plays a crucial role in media literacy. With the employment of influencers, it
may be harder for children to realize what they are seeing may not reflect the reality,
as influencers are seen as more reliable and reachable due to familiarity and the
chance of direct engagement, in addition to increased likeability. (Gräve, 2017 qtd in
Coates et. al., 2019). Such strategies also make it harder for children to differentiate
between forms of content, which was also mentioned to be crucial for media literacy.
As influencers are mainly free-lance and do not -usually- base their content on specific
brands and products, it may be harder for them to be identified with such content.
Nevertheless, being able to recognize such content does not point being media literate.
The article by Diergarten et. al. also mentions that media literacy does not directly
translate to a certainty of recognizing masked intentions.
It had been mentioned that 44% of 10-year-olds are aware of and able to recognize
persuasive intention, thus it would be expected that around the same percentage of
the participants in the study by Coates et. al. would also have this skill, as the age group
was nearly the same. This, however, does not directly translate into 44% (or a similar
percentage) of the participants not being affected by the content. Although it had not
been tested, what portion of the participants had met media literacy requirements, it is
hard to imagine that the difference in the calorie intakes would have been caused
solely by around half of the participants in the experimental group and that the other
half of this group did not contribute to this statistic(?). It is also illogical to think about
media literacy as a “all-or-nothing” function, where one is either completely media
literate or not at all.

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A crucial point of the study by Coates et. al. is that the products that were being placed
in the posts shown to the participants were not regular advertisements per se, as they
were not tested with the promoted snacks or brands after the exposure. In this way, it
cannot be said that the results of this study would also be applicable in a regular
advertisement scenario. Rather, by pointing out the possible effects content has on
children in general, it would make more sense to think of a similar situation specifically
where advertisements are not recognized or where what is being perceived by the
target group is different than what is (said to be) intended.

4.2 Effects of Underdeveloped Functions

As the article by Diergarten et. al. points out, when kids are younger their cognitive
skills and executive functions are less mature, which makes them prone to focusing on
only the more outstanding features of an advertisement, which can partially be
explained through of perceptual boundedness. So it may be that children in the
experimental group of the study by Coates et. al. may have focused on the color,
packaging, label etc. of the unhealthy foods, and have not been able to bring the aspect
of health into the calculation.
While children may be informed that junk foods or bad habits are unhealthy or
unfavorable, advertisements may not be processed and recognized as an attempt to
persuade them to consume these products, thus leaving out the possibility of making a
media literate judgement.
In a similar way, children are also less able to control their impulses (Diergarten et. al.,
2014). This means making informed decisions would be even harder for them.
In this case, if a child in the experimental group had examined a picture of an influencer
holding a cookie, which had made him/her think about snacks or sweets, it would not
be easy for them to pay attention to other aspects of the content or of the food. In
addition, it would not have been easy for them to choose a healthier snack while they
had the impulse to consume the food they found tastier or more attractive.
Another aspect that also deserves a closer look is that the healthy food group showed
no significant change in their healthy food preference. This was believed by the Coates

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et. al. to also be due to the outstanding aspects of junk/ packaged food, which healthy
foods lack.
In this experiment, the focus was on the possible effects of influencer advertisements
through a single enlengthened exposure. In everyday life, however, exposure to
advertisements takes place on a shorter and repeated manner. Through this, the
impact of exposure can vary.

4.3 Mere Exposure Effect

Focusing on the general content that are viewed by children would make more sense
than focusing on single cases, because children and teens spend a relatively long time
on the internet every day (Rideout et. al.. 2022). Today, it might even be claimed that
advertisements overpower any other content on social media. In a study done by
Bucher et. al. (2022) it was shown that during a total of 1000 min of viewing time of
children’s various social media feeds, which provided direct information on what
personalized advertisements they are being exposed to, 1801 unbranded (n = 1221)
and branded (n = 580) food promotions were identified.
the study by Rideout et. al. (2022) show that children aged 8 to 12 spend almost three
hours, and teens aged to 13-18 spend almost five hours every day only on social media
or watching videos (2021). Based on these statistics, it would not take too long for
children to be exposed to the said number of branded or unbranded food promotions.
Considering the mentioned ways in which advertisements effect their audience, it can
easily be noticed that one of the most relevant models would be the mere-exposure
effect. In the case of branded promotions/ advertisements, such a high number of
exposures to such content would have positive outcomes for the brand, however
negative for the content consumers.
The study by Coates et. al. may not prove that advertisements directly lead to a change
in the perspective of the brand, as the food presented to children in the study were
non-branded, it shows advertisements would have its audience thinking about
(unhealthy) food, although merely and repeatedly, through which it may lead them to
feel hunger more often or prefer such foods over others. It can be suggested that if a

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one-minute exposure to junk food has a noticeable impact on eating behavior, such an
increased and repeated exposure may have an even bigger impact.
Some reasons for mere exposure to be a preferred strategy may also be in relationship
to children’s limited capacity of attention, as well as the limited time to process
information, which may lead to a smaller chance of recognizing contents or intentions.

4.4 Classical and Operant Conditioning

Another model that could explain the effect the content had on the children would be
classical and operant conditioning. Although the exact features of the content were not
mentioned in detail in the study of Coates et. al., if the influencers in these posts were
presenting positive features either of themselves or the context, it would have also had
an effect on the children, in the way that they would associate the positive feelings
with the food (or brand) and involuntarily prefer them later on. A positive association
of specific foods or products may have also taken place solely because of the
influencers themselves. The influencer profiles used in the study were those of two
among children very popular vloggers. As mentioned in the article by Diergarten et.
al.(2014), the message may be conveyed that the cheerfulness, popularity etc. of the
influencers is caused by the products they use and advertise. Even if this message is not
directly conveyed, many influencers also usually claim to use the products they
advertise. So, in the post where the influencers were holding snacks, it would be
understandable for the children to have thought the influencers consume these
products on a regular basis, or even that such a habit is a characteristic of popular
people in general. Another aspect to keep in mind is that classical and operant
conditioning can take place through observation only, meaning they would not need to
have experienced this themselves.

4.5 Theory of Mind

The reality behind claims made by influencers may not be questioned by children. It
might not occur to them to question aspects like if the influencers really consume these
products in real life; in case they do, if this would really have such positive effects on

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the influencers’ (or their own) life, and in case influencers are not telling the truth,
what purpose would this serve.
The ability to question and understand these aspects would require a complete
development of theory of mind, through which children could assume influencers may
not tell the truth or that advertisements may not reflect the truth. Although theory of
mind develops relatively early in childhood, older children still do not think of using
their information unless they are aware that they are face to face with advertisements.
(quote). In addition, although the study was carried out with children of an age where
they should have developed theory of mind, it is important to consider that social
media is being used more and more by smaller children as well. In this sense, it would
be logical to suggest that children with underdeveloped theory of mind may be
affected to a higher extent than those in the study.
In order to minimize the number of cases where advertisements go unrecognized,
there needs to be certain regulations and laws to restrict how and what kind of
messages are allowed to be conveyed to children through advertisements.

4.6 New Strategies and Social Media Influencers

Among others, the need for new strategies in advertisements seem to originate from
these mentioned aspects: to make advertisements harder to recognize or distinguish
from other content, to make sales intent less conspicuous, to reach a wider audience
etc. it can be said that through social media and influencers, these goals have been
reached, at least to some extent. With the new form of advertisements, the content
seems to be seen as less intrusive in comparison to pop-ups or banners, and rather fit
in with the platforms. The mentioned likability and familiarity of influencers would also
make the processes like conditioning easier, thus making advertisements more
effective with less effort.
The design of social media and the of easiness of integrating advertisement into these
platforms make mere-exposure effect to one of the most fitting models. Such forms of
advertisements are especially beneficial when considering children’s limited attention

14
span as well as the limited time to process information due to the content flow on
social media platforms.

5. Conclusions
The findings in this paper show that the impressionability of children can be easily
explained through the stages of cognitive development and the related
underdeveloped functions which limit abilities of children. In addition, strategies in
advertisement have shown to be keeping up with new discoveries in developmental
psychology and target, or at least affect children accordingly. Because of this and the
amount of time children spend on internet websites or on social media, the messages
through advertisements gain importance.
Although the main aspect examined in this paper was the effect on children’s eating
habits, it is also important to note that other health related complications may also be
caused through advertisements.
The findings also show that the children’s understanding of advertisements are not
limited to what is being said or even what is being suggested, rather that their
understanding is made up of their interpretation of what they are exposed to. By
showing how children interpret what they see on the internet, conclusions can also be
made about the impact advertisements have on children’s habits in general. In this
sense, it is important to protect children from other bad habits that may be
represented on advertisements like tobacco use, aggression etc. Although in many
countries, such advertisements can not be targeted at children, especially on TV, this is
harder to regulate when it comes to internet advertisements due to its easy
accessibility.
These findings also mainly point to the fact that understanding and recognizing
advertisements is a key element when it comes to meeting informed and responsible
decisions. Because, as mentioned before, children have a harder time achieving this, it
is important to educate children to help them reach media literacy in an earlier age and
in an easier manner. However, as new forms of technology and media develop, it is
easy to expect that newer forms as well as strategies for advertisement will be

15
developed too. This information alone would be a valid reason to believe education on
media literacy needs to be an extensive training, if not part of school curriculum.
A big responsibility here also belongs to parents, who need to keep track of what their
children are being exposed to online. On the other side, influencers also have the
responsibility to know their audience, and make sure what they are promoting will be
interpreted correctly, and more importantly, that the content of the advertisement is
age appropriate. As children are prone to idolizing social media influencers and copying
their decisions and lifestyles, it is not surprising that brands and manufacturers have
chosen this as a strategy to reach children in a more effective manner. Based on this
thought, it is not only parents or children that need to be educated on
the topic, but influencers as well.
In this sense, there needs to be the understanding that what would be appropriate for
children should not be a decision solely based on the function of advertisements, but
bring children’s cognitive development into the calculation, keeping their abilities in
mind. Although there has been new rules and regulation when it comes to
advertisements directed at children, some of them do not make it to the category of
obligations and remain in the category of guidelines (Bucher et. al., 2022)
A generally overseen aspect also seems to be that obesity is not only caused by
unhealthy foods but also overeating in general. As the study by Coates et. al. has
shown, the effect that unhealthy food advertisements have on children is not only one
that benefits brands or manufacturers, but rather that this effect is closely related to
children’s eating behavior in general. In relation to this aspect, it can be explained that
children’s limited impulse control does not only cause their persistence, but also
explains their habits. Considering their difficulty in understanding complex issues like
health and the possible harms of certain foods as well as weight gain, it is important
make sure what they are being exposed to is rightfully comprehendible and suitable for
them.
With all the mentioned aspects in mind, understanding how social media
advertisements influence children’s eating habits is crucial for the fight against
childhood obesity. This understanding can help educate the public as well as bring

16
attention to the different strategies used to target children and perceive them as a
market factor, which may some day be altered or regulated in a proper manner based
on these findings.

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6. Citations

Coates, A., Hardman, C. A., Halford, J. C., Christiansen, P. & Boyland, E. (2019). Social
media influencer marketing and children’s food intake: a randomized
trial. Pediatrics, 143(4).

Diergarten, A. K., Nieding, G., & Ohler, P. (2014). Beeinflussung von Kindern und
Jugendlichen durch Werbung in den neuen Medien. In T. Porsch & S. Pieschl
(Hrsg.), Neue Medien und deren Schatten. Mediennutzung, Medienwirkung und
Medienkompetenz (S. 103-131) Göttingen: Hogrefe

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