Preschool children preferred the taste of foods and drinks in McDonald's packaging to the same foods and drinks in unbranded packaging, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Food marketing to children is widespread. The food and beverage industries spend more than $10 billion per year to market to children in the United States, according to background information in the article. By age 2, children may already have beliefs about certain brands and 2- to -6-year-olds can recognize brands and associate them with products.
In a study by Thomas N. Robinson, M.D., M.P.H., Stanford University School of Medicine, California, and colleagues, preschoolers age 3 to 5 tasted five pairs of identical foods and beverages in basic McDonald's packaging and in matched but unbranded packaging. The foods and beverages were: one-quarter of a McDonald's hamburger, a Chicken McNugget, McDonald's french fries, about three ounces of 1 percent fat milk (or apple juice for one child who was not allowed to drink milk) and two baby carrots. Parents completed a questionnaire including their child's race/ethnicity, age, exposure to McDonald's food and toys and television viewing habits.