Introduction
Despite the rise of digital media, TV remains the number one place children spend their media time (Moses, 2014). Past research has shown that less healthy food and beverages such as those containing high fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) are prominent in TV commercials (e.g., Carter, Patterson, Donovan, Ewing, & Roberts, 2011). In these commercials, various persuasive techniques (e.g., taste/smell, convenience), which promote the purchase of the products, have been used (Hebden, King, & Kelly, 2011). Extensive studies have found that exposure to advertising for HFSS products, including confectionery, soft drinks, crisps or savory snacks, fast food, pre-sugared breakfast cereals, is associated with children‟s cognition, food consumption, and obesity (e.g., Harris, Bargh, & Brownell, 2009; Macklin, 1994; see also Moore, Wilkie, & Desrochers, 2017). Since younger children, especially those in the “perceptual stage” of development, may not understand the persuasive or selling intent of commercials (e.g., John, 1999), they may be vulnerable to this advertising. As a result, several countries such as UK and Ireland (Hawkes, Lobstein, & For the Polmark Consortium, 2011) have introduced restrictions or regulations for broadcasting food and beverage commercials for children. The commercials of HFSS food and beverage have sometimes introduced these products with healthier images and words / phrases like health and nutrition claims. Health claims refer to any representation that states, suggests, or implies that a relationship exists between a food (/beverage) or a constituent of that food (/beverage) and health. Nutrition claims mean any representation which states, suggests or implies that a food (/beverage) has particular nutritional properties including but not limited to the energy value and to the content of protein, fat and carbohydrates, as well as the content of vitamins and minerals (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States & World Health Organization, 2013). Using health messages for HFSS food presents the risk of a biased image of the products (i.e., they are „healthy‟), which may result in unhealthy life styles and conditions. In recent years, there has been regulatory pressure on food advertisers to market their products responsibly (e.g., WHO regulations; Kraak et al., 2016). At the same time, the Children‟s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) emerged, in which several leading companies pledged to market their products to children responsibly (see editorial by Boyland & Harris, 2017). Therefore, we were interested in seeing if food and beverage advertising had changed in 2017. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine the relative frequency of food and beverage commercials targeting children with a focus on healthy aspects of the products, their health and nutrition claims, as well as other persuasive techniques.
Method
A total of twenty hours of programming targeting children was recorded on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Networks in the United States during the hours of 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on two weekdays in September 2017. The advertisements were coded for product type (“food”, “beverage”, fast-food restaurant (“Restaurant: Quick-service/fast food restaurant”), and sit-down restaurant (“Restaurant: Sit-down restaurant”), food type (e.g., “confectionary”, “savory snacks”, “pre-prepared convenience foods”, “bread”, “fruits”, and “vegetables”) (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations & World Health Organization, 2016; Suzuki, 2018), and persuasive techniques (e.g., “health claims”, “nutrition claims”, “taste/smell/flavor”, “convenience”, “scientific information”, “celebrities/a well-known person”, and “eating /drinking behavior”) (e.g., Hebden et. al., 2011; Jenkin, Madhvani, Signal & Bowers, 2014; Kraak & Story, 2015; Warren, Wicks, Wicks, Fosu, & Chung, 2008). Food type can be classified into two categories; Less healthy (“confectionary”, “savory snacks”, “sweet bakery wares”, “other sweets/desserts”, “Sugared breakfast cereals”, “pre-prepared convenience foods”) or healthier categories related to other food categories (Ofcom, 2004; Nutrition Australia, 2013; Suzuki, 2018). Seven coders independently evaluated the advertisements, with two coders assigned to every programming block. They were trained for about three weeks to read the coding manual, practice coding and discuss the coding scheme, and revise their coding after receiving feedback of the trial coding. To check coding reliability, two independent coders evaluated the same programs. 94.3% agreement was achieved for product type.
Results and discussion
A total of 856 commercials appeared. Food and beverage advertisements represented 29.0% (N=248). On average, children were exposed to 12.4 food and beverage advertisements per hour. Of all the food, beverage and restaurant advertisements, “food” and fast-food commercials were frequently broadcasted; 40.7% (N=101) were for “food” commercials, and fast-food restaurant commercials accounted for 43.5% (N=108). 12.1% (N=30) “beverage” commercials and 3.6% (N=9) sit-down restaurant commercials were included. Food, beverage and restaurant commercials were more likely to appear on Nickelodeon (36.2%, N=129) than on the Cartoon network (28.4%, N=419) (χ2=5.43, df=1, p<.05). As for the appearances of product type, “food” advertisements frequently appeared on Nickelodeon (54.6%, N=65), whereas the programs of Cartoon network included a lot of fast food commercials (61.2%, N=79). In examining the appearances of “beverage”, “food”, “fast food”, and “others (except food, beverage, and restaurant)” between the channels, the results showed that the programs of Cartoon network were more likely to broadcast “fast food” commercials than those of Nickelodeon, whereas the programs of Nickelodeon were more likely to broadcast “food” commercials (χ2=38.23, df=3, p<.01)1. The majority of food types were “confectionary” (25.7%, N=26), “savory snacks” (16.8%, N=17), “breakfast cereals” (14.9%, N=15), and “pre-prepared convenience foods” (13.9%, N=14). In classifying various kinds of foods into two big categories related to health (healthier or less healthy) as above-mentioned, less healthy food accounted for 88.1% (N=89). No commercials were categorized into three of the healthier categories (bread, fruits, and vegetables). As persuasive techniques for consumers, “health claims”, and “nutrition claims” were low (8.9%). For example, grape juice produced by Welch‟s used the appeal “sugar free”. In the commercials with nutrition claims, there was no significant difference in the appearance between the “beverage” and “food” commercials (χ2=1.70, df=1, n.s.). The other persuasive techniques like “convenience” (75.8%, N=188), “taste/smell/flavor” (51.2%, N=127), and “eating/drinking behavior” (49.2%, N=122) were frequently used. In contrast, the rates of some techniques (e.g., “celebrities/a well-known person”, “scientific information”) were very low. As for the persuasive technique of “celebrities/a well-known person”, the category of product type was classified in only the “beverage” category. Thus, this study indicated that there were not many less-healthy food commercials that appealed to health and nutrition aspects of the products by using health and nutrition claims, or scientific information. In previous studies, the rate of health and nutrition claims varied between less than 10% to more than 30% (Jenkin et al., 2014). This may be due to the differences in the definitions of health and nutrition claims. Our study referred to the international standard definitions. Therefore, the findings regarding the rate of health and nutrition claims in this study can contribute to overall knowledge about the current spread of health and nutrition claims in “less healthy” food commercials of children‟s television programs. It may also be the case that food companies are acting more responsibly by limiting their persuasion techniques to those that relate to taste or convenience and not by misrepresenting the products as healthy. However, overall, the proportion of less healthy food commercials was high, and various persuasive techniques were used. At the same time, there were no commercials for fruits or vegetables presented during this time frame despite governmental regulations for eating these healthier foods. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the ways that certain foods are promoted (or are not promoted) among parents and policy-makers. As the sample used in this study was recorded only on weekdays and through the two kids' channels. It would be expected that the future study develop the analysis for the recorded commercials on weekends and on the other local channels. The sample used in this study was analyzed only on weekdays and through two children‟s channels. Future research might examine food and beverage advertising across different time frames and channels.

• Kanae Suzuki(University of Tsukuba, Japan)
• Michelle R. Nelson(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)