Marketing Fun Foods: A Profile and Analysis of Supermarket Food Messages Targeted at Children

Childhood obesity is a significant problem that requires innovative solutions. This article suggests that researchers and policy-makers move beyond a scrutiny of junk food and televised advertisements to children to focus on the messages targeted to children in the supermarket. Following a content analysis of fun foods marketed to children, the article (a) outlines why the recoding of “regular” food into “fun food” contributes to the childhood obesity crisis, and (b) suggests how the meaning-making practices of food can be acknowledged in the policy-making process.