Young Adult Food Messaging Experiment

An Experiment Evaluating the Effectiveness of Counter-marketing Food Messages Among Young Adults

The primary objective of this study is to identify the food counter-marketing messages (i.e., messages that describe deceptive marketing tactics used by food companies) that are perceived as most effective among young adults.

Participants will complete a within-subjects, randomized experiment in which they view and rate messages describing deceptive marketing tactics used by food companies to sell unhealthy products.

Messages cover five topics: (1) lying about unhealthy products being healthy, (2) engineering foods to be addictive, (3) covering up evidence about the harms of consuming unhealthy products, (4) targeting groups, (5) piggybacking on social causes to promote products. Each topic is presented in five framing variants: an unframed version and four values-based frames that connect the message to a value (e.g., authenticity, fairness). Participants also view one control message, for a total of 26 messages (5 topics × 5 framing variants, plus 1 control).

Topic order is randomized across participants; within each topic, the five framing variants are presented consecutively in random order.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age between 18-29 years
• Reside in the United States
• Consume at least 5-6 servings per week of sugary drinks and 5-6 servings per week of sweet and salty snacks

Exclusion Criteria:

• Younger than 18 or older than 29 years
• Reside outside of the United States
• Consume less than 5-6 servings per week of sugary drinks or less than 5-6 servings per week of sweet and salty snacks