Marketing Vegetables: Leveraging Branded Media to Increase Vegetable Uptake in Elementary Schools

23 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2015

See all articles by Andrew Hanks

Andrew Hanks

The Ohio State University

David Just

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

Adam Brumberg

Cornell University - Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Food and Brand Lab

Date Written: December 10, 2015

Abstract

Objectives: Children do not eat enough servings of vegetables underscoring the need for effective interventions encouraging this behavior. The purpose of this research is to measure the impact that daily exposure to branded vegetable characters has on vegetable selection among boys and girls in elementary schools.

Methods: In a large urban school district 10 elementary schools agreed to participate in the study and were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: 1) no changes to the cafeteria; 2) vinyl banner displaying vegetable characters which was fastened around the base of the salad bar; 3) short television segments with health education delivered by vegetable characters; 4) combination of vinyl banner and television segments. We collected 22,206 student-day observations over a six week period by tallying the number of boys and girls taking vegetables from the school’s salad bar.

Results: Results show that 90.5% (from 12.6% to 24.0%; p=0.04) more students took vegetables from the salad bar when exposed to the vinyl banner only, while 239.2% (from 10.2% to 34.6%; p<0.001) more students visited the salad bar when exposed to both the television segments and vinyl banners. Both boys and girls responded positively to the vinyl banners (p<0.05 in both cases).

Conclusions: Evidence from this study highlights the positive impact of branded media on children’s food selection. These solutions for both marketers and children can be powerful tools in encouraging healthier choices for children.

Keywords: Advertising, diet, food preferences, lunch, nutrition, gender

JEL Classification: I12, I18, J13, M31, M32, Q1

Suggested Citation

Hanks, Andrew and Just, David and Brumberg, Adam, Marketing Vegetables: Leveraging Branded Media to Increase Vegetable Uptake in Elementary Schools (December 10, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2701890 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2701890

Andrew Hanks (Contact Author)

The Ohio State University ( email )

130A Campbell Hall
1787 Neil Ave.
Columbus, OH OH 43210
United States

David Just

Cornell University - Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management ( email )

Ithaca, NY
United States
6072552086 (Phone)

Adam Brumberg

Cornell University - Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Food and Brand Lab ( email )

Ithaca, NY
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
249
Abstract Views
2,553
Rank
223,410
PlumX Metrics