Television Commercials and Fading Behavioral Brand Choice Effects in Austrian Children

Previous research demonstrates that commercials can influence food choice and thus eating behavior in children but little is known about the duration of this effect. We conducted an experiment (N = 134) where seven- to eleven-year-old children watched a cartoon with an embedded advertising block. Half of the children saw a commercial for a specific brand of chocolate candies. After watching, we measured actual brand choice. We found that children watching the target commercial chose the advertised brand significantly more often compared to children not watching the target commercial. The primary contribution of the present study is the examination of how temporal delay influences this effect. We manipulated the time that elapsed between exposure to the commercial and brand choice. Analysis indicated that the behavioral effect on brand choice was only evident immediately after exposure and did not persist over time.