Identical food more appealing in McDonald’s wrappers than plain ones

William Atkins
Sunday, 19 August 2007 20:17

Science - Health

U.S. researchers provided pre-school children with two meals from McDonald’s, one in its original McDonald’s wrapper and the other in a plain wrapper. The kids liked the foods in the McDonald’s wrapper better, even though the food was identical.

Dina L. G. Borzekowski and colleagues asked 63 pre-school aged children (three to five years old), from six federally sponsored low-income preschool Head Start centers in San Mateo County, California, which meal they liked better.
 

Both consisted of a quarter of a hamburger, a chicken nugget, French fries, two baby carrots, and a cup of milk. One meal was wrapped in its original McDonald’s packaging, while the other one was re-wrapped in a plain wrapper (which did not identify it as McDonald’s or any other company).

In the majority of cases, the children liked the taste of the McDonald’s wrapped food better than the food in the plain (unidentified) wrapping—even though the food was IDENTICAL.

According to the article’s main conclusion: “Branding of foods and beverages influences young children's taste perceptions. The findings are consistent with recommendations to regulate marketing to young children and also suggest that branding may be a useful strategy for improving young children's eating behaviors.”

Specifically, the research team found that 76% of the children preferred the McDonald’s fries over the unbranded (although identical) fries, while only 13% liked the unbranded fries better. (Note: only 11% of the children identified that the fries were the same or could not tell the difference between the two.)

The McDonald’s fries were in a “white bag that contained the McDonald’s yellow arches and smile logo on a red background and the words ‘We love to see you smile’ in blue on yellow along the edge”.

Of the chicken nugget, 60% liked the McDonald’s branded nugget that was wrapped in the McDonald's wrapping, while only 10% liked the plain wrapped McDonald's nugget better. (Note: again 30% of the kids couldn’t tell the difference, thinking they tasted the same.)

The chicken nugget was in a “white McDonald's bag with a red arches logo and the phrase Chicken McNuggets in blue”.

The Borzekowski team suggests that marketing by fast-foods companies has a strong affect on what children eat. They suggest that such marketing ploys could also be used, in reverse, to sell more nutritious and healthy foods to children.

In their study, the children preferred the McDonald’s wrapped carrots over the plain wrapped carrots, even though they were the same carrots (in this case, the carrots were not even from McDonald’s because the company did not even sell carrots at the time of the study). Borzekowski suggests that this result indicates that nutritious foods could be effectively marketed to convince children to eat them.

The team also asked the children the number of television sets in their homes. The more TVs at home were directly related to the children showing more preference to McDonald’s foods. The researchers suggested that this result directly shows the strong influence that TV marketing has on children.

The study ("Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children's Taste Preferences") performed by the Borzekowski team is written up in the Archives of Pediatrics (volume 161, pages 792 to 797.

The colleagues of Borzekowski include Thomas N. Robinson, Donna M. Matheson, and Helena C. Kraemer. They are affiliated with: Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics (Robinson); Stanford Prevention Research Center, Department of Medicine (Robinson and Matheson), and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science (Kraemer), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; and the Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland (Borzekowski).

This article was based on the New Scientist article (August 6, 2007) “Fast food branding makes children prefer happy meals” (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12431-fast-food-branding-makes-children-prefer-happy-meals.html).