Can Public-Service Advertising Change Children's Nutrition Habits? The Impact of Relevance and Familiarity

This study presents research conducted in France that builds (and tests) a framework for effectiveness of pro-nutrition public service announcements targeted at children. The study used the example of advertisements that encouraged children's fruit consumption. "Child-relevance" of a campaign, which is created by using popular elements from commercial children's food advertising, is found to be a key antecedent to effectiveness of pro-nutrition messages, both in terms of attitudinal and behavioral change. Further, it is also important to take care of the aspect of "campaign familiarity" and spend proportionate amounts of media budgets on public service messages in comparison to commercial food advertising.