Young people’s eating behavior is influenced by their prototypes of typical healthy and unhealthy peer eaters. This study evaluates the effects of a poster and cartoon strip campaign to promote positive images of vegetable eating peers and vegetable consumption among conscripted men in a quasi-experimental study design. Samples of young Finnish men reported vegetable consumption frequency at the start of compulsory military service (control arm n = 848, intervention arm n = 959) and at 6 months of service (control n = 424, intervention n = 484). Half of the participants reported their perceptions of Vegetable chooser or Vegetable abstainer prototypes, respectively, at baseline and follow-up (control n = 239, intervention n = 234). Three out of six prototypes became less positive toward vegetable consumption at follow-up. However, these trends were less pronounced in the intervention than control group for prototypes and vegetable consumption.
Kinnunen et al. (Sun,) studied this question.