Playing With Food: Content Analysis of Food Advergames

MIRA LEE, YOONHYEUNG CHOI, ELIZABETH TAYLOR

QUILLIAM, AND RICHARD T. COLE

Playing With Food: Content Analysis ofFood Advergames

This study examines how food marketers use advergames, custom-builtand branded online games, to promote food products to children andprovides the nutritional content of the food products featured in theadvergames. The results reveal that food marketers use advergamesheavily, with candy and gum or food products high in sugar mostfrequently appearing in the analyzed games. Children are often invitedto ‘‘play with’’ the foods integrated as active game components. Finally,despite the educational benefits of interactive games, fewer than 3% ofthe games analyzed in this study appear to educate children aboutnutritional and health issues.

I am deeply concerned about the current unhealthy trend toward poor nutrition and

childhood obesity, which the Institute of Medicine has linked to the prevalence of

television advertisements for fast food, junk food, sugared cereals, and other foods

wholly lacking in nutritional value. If this trend continues, our children could be the

first in generations to enjoy shorter life expectancies than their parents (U.S. Rep.

Edward J. Markey 2007).

The food, beverage, and restaurant industries spend $1.6 billion annually

to promote their products to children and adolescents, with overall marketing

expenditures for those brands of nearly $10 billion (FTC 2008b; Institute of

Medicine of the National Academies 2006). Concurrently, over the past two

decades, the United States has experienced a dramatic increase in childhood

obesity. According to the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Exami-

nation Survey, 17% of U.S. children and adolescents aged two to nineteen

years are overweight (National Center for Health Statistics 2007). Overweight

Mira Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, & Retailing at

the Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI ([email protected]).Yoonhyeung Choi is an assistant

professor in the Department of Public Relations at the Hanyang University, Ansan, Korea

([email protected]). Elizabeth Taylor Quilliam is an assistant professor in the Department

of Advertising, Public Relations, & Retailing at the Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

([email protected]). Richard T. Cole is a professor in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, &

Retailing at the Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI ([email protected]).

This research was supported by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. The authors thank Nora

Rifon, Herbert Rotfeld, and the reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft.

The Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2009

ISSN 0022-0078

Copyright 2009 by The American Council on Consumer Interests

SPRING 2009 VOLUME 43, NUMBER 1 129

children have an 80% likelihood of remaining overweight into adulthood,

with a higher rate of morbidity and mortality (American Obesity Association

n.d.). Researchers and policy makers are currently debating the role of food

advertising in the childhood obesity epidemic (Hastings et al. 2003; Institute

of Medicine of the National Academies 2006).

Accompanying the rise in childhood obesity and the proliferation of food

marketing activities targeted at children are public concerns about the

effects of such marketing on children’s health. Food marketers have

answered these concernswith several efforts. KelloggCompany, for example,

decided not to advertise low-nutrient foods on television and other media

aimed at children younger than age twelve (Teinowitz 2007). In a statement

released in response to the Kellogg decision (see above), Rep. Edward

Markey (D-MA), the chair of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Telecommu-

nications and the Internet, gave public voice to concerns about the potential

influence of children’s advertising on childhood obesity (Markey 2007).

The concerns about the relationship between food advertising and child-

hood obesity are based on the assumption that children, unlike adults, are

unable to comprehend the concept and persuasive intent of advertising.

Researchers have found that children learn to distinguish programming

(e.g., cartoons) from advertisements on television at around age four or five

(John 1999; Wilcox et al. 2004), but it is not until age twelve or later when

children are said to develop the capability to defend themselves against

advertisers’ claims (John 1999). Given this vulnerability to advertising,

frequent exposure to television ads for nutritionally poor food products

has the potential to influence children’s poor eating habits.

Children are now exposed to food advertising through new online

techniques. Among the most interactive of these new tactics aimed specifi-

cally at children is the advergame, a custom-built online game designed to

promote a company’s brand (Chester and Montgomery 2007; Mallinckrodt

and Mizerski 2007; Moore and Rideout 2007; Weber, Story, and Harnack

2006). According to the 2007 American Kids Study conducted by

Mediamark Research & Intelligence (2007), a majority (78.1%) of children

aged six to eleven years who went online in the thirty days prior to the survey

(65.9% of all respondents aged six to eleven years) reported playing online

games. In another study, NPD Group (2007) found that among all child

gamers aged two to seventeen years, approximately half play games five hours

or less per week and the other half play six to sixteen hours or more per week.

It seems natural for food marketers to want to tap into this enthusiasm. The

Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s communications industry forecast has indicated

that total U.S. spending on advergames was estimated at $264 million in 2006

and is expected to grow to $676 million by 2009 (Johannes and Odell 2007).

130 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS

Some marketers are actively promoting advergames through various media

such as television commercials, print ads, and banner ads to attract children

(Johannes and Odell 2007). More notably, some advertisers (e.g., Coca-Cola

Company) are diverting their advertising dollars from television to games and

other nontraditional advertising media (Grover et al. 2004).

However, advergames create some concerns when used to target children

(Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007; Moore and Rideout 2007). It has been

argued that if younger children have difficulty distinguishing advertisingmes-

sages from the content of television programming where content and adver-

tisements are separated from each other, those children may also have

difficulty distinguishing advertisingmessages from the content of advergames

when advertising messages are often integrated into the story line of the game

(Moore and Rideout 2007).Moreover, the immersive and interactive nature of

advergames has the potential to influence children’s preferences for the food

brands embedded in the advergames, even when they understood the persua-

sive intent of the advergames (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007). Recently,

Weber, Story, and Harnack (2006) and Moore and Rideout (2007) conducted

content analyses of food marketers’ Web sites aimed at children and found

that many food Web sites targeting children used advergames.

This study extends previous studies by conducting a more extensive

analysis of the content of advergames. The current study first examines

how food brands are integrated in advergames to promote the food brands

to children. Second, given the educational benefits of interactive games, the

current study also examines to what extent food marketers use advergames

to educate children. Finally, this study also reports on the product category

and nutritional content of foods featured in advergames. The findings of

this study will lay the groundwork for future empirical studies exploring

the impact of advergames on children’s food preferences for, purchases of,

and consumption of food products. Additionally, the FTC and Department

of Health & Human Services (2006) have requested that the academic

community provides policy makers with research-based insights into new

interactive food advertising and marketing strategies targeted at children.

The findings of this study will provide the food industry and policy makers

with a more complete picture of food advergames aimed at children.

CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING OF TELEVISION

ADVERTISING

Over time, children develop knowledge about persuasion, product, and

advertiser. This knowledge, called persuasion knowledge, helps children


‘‘recognize, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and remember persuasion attempts

and select and execute coping tactics believed to be effective and appro-

priate’’ (Friestad and Wright 1994, 3). Wright, Friestad, and Boush (2005)

explain that knowledge of persuasion—and thus the ability to process and

defend against persuasive messages—is learned, socialized, domain spe-

cific, and continually evolving. This learning—spurred by the motivation

to manage an increasingly complex world—becomes more refined as the

child matures.

Children’s understanding of advertising is thought to develop in age-

related stages, as explored in a number of empirical studies focusing on tele-

vision. To understand television advertising, it is believed that children must

first learn to distinguish programming (e.g., cartoons) from commercials,

a skill that begins to emerge around age four or five (John 1999; Wilcox

et al. 2004). However, even after children begin to recognize the difference

between advertising and other programming content, they have difficulty

discerning the persuasive nature of advertising messages before age seven

or eight (Moses and Baldwin 2005; Wilcox et al. 2004). Some researchers

also posit, moreover, that even after children begin to recognize the persua-

sive nature of advertising, they still do not develop the capability to defend

against advertisers’ claims until age twelve or later (John 1999).

In one early study (Robertson and Rossiter 1974), elementary school chil-

drenwere asked a series of questions probing their understanding of the infor-

mation and persuasion functions of television commercials. While the

proportion of children who identified information functions remained

relatively constant, persuasive intent was more likely to be noted by the

ten- and eleven-year-old age group (99%) than by the six- and seven-year-

old children (52.7%). Blosser and Roberts (1985) also showed both commer-

cial andnoncommercial content tochildrenagedfour throughelevenyearsand

came to a similar conclusion.After viewing excerpts from television news and

television commercials, the older children were able to correctly identify the

persuasive intent of the advertisements, while the younger children could not.

Given children’s vulnerability to advertising, the role of television food

advertising in the childhood obesity epidemic has become an emerging

research topic (Harrison and Marske 2005; Hastings et al. 2003; Institute

of Medicine of the National Academies 2006; Lowry et al. 2002). Two

systematic reviews of previous studies have concluded that food is the most

heavily advertised product targeted to children on television (Hastings et al.

2003; Institute of Medicine of the National Academies 2006). Hastings

et al. (2003) reported that, across a large number of studies, food advertising

was found to influence children’s preferences for, purchases of, and

consumption behaviors relative to different food and beverage brands


and categories. Importantly, the Hastings et al. (2003) study also reported

that the influence of food advertisements on children’s food behavior and

dietary intake is independent of other factors such as parents’ eating habits

or attitudes. These conclusions were reaffirmed three years later by the Insti-

tute of Medicine of the National Academies (2006). Following a systematic

evidence review, they reported, ‘‘it can be concluded that television adver-

tising influences children to prefer and request high-calorie and low-nutrient

foods and beverages’’ (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies

2006, 8).

In one study, for example, Borzekowski and Robinson (2001) conducted

an experiment with preschool children to examine the effect of advertising

exposure on food and beverage preferences. They found that children who

watched cartoons and advertisements on television were more likely to

express preferences for the advertised brand (vs. a similar product) than

were children who saw cartoons and educational material but no com-

mercials. More recently, these researchers reported the results of another exp-

eriment with preschool children who expressed significantly greater

preference for the taste of products packaged with the McDonald’s brand

compared to unbranded foods and beverages. Children with more televi-

sion sets in their homes expressed an even greater preference for the

McDonald’s branded products (Robinson et al. 2007). Older children

are influenced as well. Dixon et al. (2007) surveyed fifth- and sixth-grade

children and found that heavier television viewing and more frequent expo-

sure to television commercials were associated with more positive attitudes

toward advertised ‘‘junk’’ food and higher consumption of such food.

ADVERGAMES: NEW WAY TO ADVERTISE FOOD PRODUCTS

The continuing increase in Internet use among children has been well

documented in both the academic and the trade literature. According to

the U.S. Census Bureau (2005), about 63% of children aged three to sev-

enteen years have Internet access at home. The Internet provides food mar-

keters with a new way to attract children—advergames (Chester and

Montgomery 2007; Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007; Moore and Rideout

2007; Weber, Story, and Harnack 2006). Advergames are distinguished

from in-game advertising, the integration of brand identifiers in existing

video games similar to product placement in movies (Nelson, Yaros,

and Keum 2006; Lee and Faber 2007; Yang et al. 2006).

Consider an advergame for M&M’s chocolate candies, Amazing Crispy,accessible on the M&M’s Web site. In this advergame, a child becomes an


anthropomorphic M&M’s brand spokescharacter, ‘‘Crispy.’’ To win the

game, ‘‘Crispy,’’ role-played by the child, is required to collect as many

M&M’s chocolate candies as possible. The child earns a point for every

chocolate candy he or she collects and moves to a higher level of skill when

all the chocolate candies have been collected. The sophistication of adver-

games varies greatly from short rudimentary games to longer more sophis-

ticated games. Such varying sophistication allows children of all

ages—from preschool children with short attention spans and undeveloped

hand-to-eye coordination to tweens with the cognitive capacity to think

more logically and strategically (Baumgarten 2003; Piaget 1959)—to enjoy

playing advergames.

While watching television advertisements and playing advergames are

both playful activities, the ways in which children process advergames are

different from the ways that they process television advertisements.

Unlike passively watching television advertisements, children activelyinteract with advergames (Grodal 2000; Mallinckrodt and Mizerski

2007). Such interaction in a gaming environment is important because

it can evoke feelings of telepresence, a perception of being present in

the gaming environment (Grigorovici and Constantin 2004; Molesworth

2006; Nelson, Yaros, and Keum 2006; Nicovich 2005). Since advergame

playing is an enjoyable experience, a feeling of being present in the adver-

game can produce more positive evaluations of the brand and the game

(Nicovich 2005). Although little is known about the effects of telepre-

sence on children during game playing, the persuasive potential of adver-

games or in-game advertising on adult consumers has been frequently

discussed by researchers. Researchers have found that the telepresence

adult game players feel during game play leads to positive evaluations

of the brands embedded in the game (Grigorovici and Constantin 2004;

Nelson, Yaros, and Keum 2006; Nicovich 2005).

Moreover, advergames are presented as entertainment. Since advertising

messages are often integrated into the story line of this type of game, youn-

ger children may have difficulty understanding the persuasive intent of

advergames (Moore and Rideout 2007). With regard to this concern, the

CARU, a self-regulatory arm of the CBBB, published a new guideline

in 2006 that states ‘‘. . . on Websites directed to children, if an advertiser

integrates an advertisement into the content of a game or activity, then the

advertiser should make clear, in a manner that will be easily understood by

the intended audience, that it is an advertisement’’ (CARU 2006). Even if

older children understand the persuasive intent of the advergames, they

may have difficulty accessing and applying their persuasion knowledge

to limit persuasive effects. Mallinckrodt and Mizerski (2007) found that


although seven- and eight-year-olds understood the persuasive intent of the

Froot Loops advergame, Froot Loops Toss (i.e., to request that a family

member purchase the cereal so the child may eat Froot Loops), those

who played the advergame still showed greater preferences for the Froot

Loops over other cereals and higher preference for a bowl of cereal over

other food options (e.g., cheeseburger, fruit salad, sandwich) than those

who did not play the advergame.

Due to questions about the potential impact of food advergames on

children, there have been attempts to examine the extent and the nature

of food advergames aimed at children and adolescents (Moore and

Rideout 2007; Weber, Story, and Harnack 2006). In 2004, Weber, Story,

and Harnack (2006) analyzed the content of Web sites of forty food and

beverage brands aimed at children and adolescents and found that 63% of

the Web sites analyzed used advergames. More extensively, in 2005,

Moore and Rideout (2007) analyzed the content of seventy-seven Web

sites for food brands targeted at children. They reported that the food mar-

keters’ Web sites they analyzed received approximately forty-nine mil-

lion total visits by children aged two through eleven years annually.

Their study showed that 73% of those Web sites used advergames to pro-

mote food products to children. Brand logos were most frequently embed-

ded in those advergames, followed by food items, product packages, and

brand spokescharacters. Their study also reported on several game-related

features of the food advergames, such as music or sound effects (90%), cus-

tomization options (39%), time limits (40%), multiple levels of play (45%),

and game scores (69%).

BRAND INTEGRATION IN FOOD ADVERGAMES

In addition to what previous content analyses of food advergames found

(Moore and Rideout 2007; Weber, Story, and Harnack 2006), examining

how brand identifiers are integrated in food advergames will provide

researchers and policy makers with a more complete picture of how food

marketers use advergames to market their products to children. Brand iden-

tifiers are embedded in advergames in several different ways. Brand iden-

tifiers are sometimes embedded as active game components (Nelson 2002).

For example, in some advergames, children are required to use brand iden-

tifiers as tools or equipment (e.g., children shoot enemies with a Popsicle

ship in the Save the Day advergame for Popsicle) (Figure 1a). In other

advergames, brands are used as primary objects that children are required

to obtain in order to win the game (e.g., children collect as many M&M’s


FIGURE 1

(a) Brand as a Tool: ‘‘Save the Day.’’ (b) Brand as a Primary Object: ‘‘Amazing Crispy.’’(c) Brand as a Secondary Object: ‘‘Pebbles Robopup Run.’’ (d) Brand in BackgroundBillboard: ‘‘Slam Dunk.’’ (e) Brand around Game: ‘‘Backyard Cabana’’


chocolate candies as possible to earn points and move to a higher level of

skill in the M&M’s advergame, Amazing Crispy) (Figure 1b) or as secondary

objects that children are encouraged to collect to get extra energy and/or

bonus points (e.g., children collect boxes of Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Peb-

bles for bonus points in Post’sPebbles Robopup Run advergame) (Figure 1c).

Brand identifiers as active game components invite children to ‘‘play

with’’ branded foods in gaming environments (Mediaedge:cia 2005).

Focus groups with adult game players have found that an imaginary expe-

rience evoked by interacting with a brand in a game tends to transfer to

real life (Molesworth 2006). Similarly, children’s imaginary experiences

evoked by ‘‘playing with’’ branded foods in advergaming environments

may transfer to the real world, leading to positive attitudes toward the

branded foods in the games. Supporting this notion, Mallinckrodt and

Mizerski (2007) demonstrated that playing with Froot Loops cereals

in the Froot Loop Toss advergame (e.g., children are asked to throw a

Froot Loop into the monster’s mouth to earn points) increased children’s

preference for the Froot Loops cereals promoted in the game.

Branded foods are sometimes embedded as billboard-style advertise-

ments within advergames (e.g., the billboard advertisement for Planters

is displayed in a basketball stadium in the Slam Dunk advergame for

Planters) (Figure 1d). Some advertisers also display their brands aroundadvergame frames (e.g., the Chips Ahoy! brand logo and food items are

displayed around the Backyard Cabana advergame for Chips Ahoy!)

(Figure 1e). Although these types of brand integration do not involve

playing with the branded foods, brands appearing in the background

may be expected to influence children’s memory for those food brands

as has been found with older game players. Previous research has found

that college students who were exposed to brands appearing in the back-

ground within a sports game showed a higher level of implicit memory

(e.g., unconscious recollection of recently presented information;

Schacter 1987) of the brands than those who played a different game

or did not play any game (Yang et al. 2006).

Given the persuasion potential of food advergames targeted at children,

it is important to examine how food brands are integrated in advergames

aimed at children for advertising and marketing purposes. Thus, the follow-

ing research question is posed:

RQ1:What types of brand integration strategies do food marketers use in advergames

for children, and to what extent do they use them?


EDUCATIONAL FUNCTIONS OF FOOD ADVERGAMES

Advertising has several goals: (1) to persuade, influencing consumers

to form favorable attitudes or change attitudes toward the brand; (2) to

inform, providing consumers with information about something; (3) to

teach, showing consumers why or how to do something (e.g., public ser-

vice announcements or educational information on direct-to-consumer

prescription drug Web sites); and (4) to entertain, amusing consumers

by providing them playful experience and aesthetic enjoyment (e.g.,

branded entertainment). These are not exclusive but instead are ‘‘fuzzy’’

categorizations (Blosser and Roberts 1985; Wright, Friestad, and Boush

2005, 224).

Like advertising, advergames may also have several goals (Lee and

Youn 2008). Advergames aimed at children entertain children. Adver-

tisers make interactive games available on their Web sites so that chil-

dren can have fun, thus increasing the amount of time children spend on

the site and the amount of time they are exposed to brand messages.

Advergames as a new form of advertising on the Internet also serve

to persuade children to form positive attitudes toward their brands

(Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007). In addition to the entertainment

and persuasion functions of advergames, advergames can also serve

an educational role. Specifically, advergames can be used to teach chil-

dren how to develop healthy eating habits (e.g., in the Vending MachineMania advergame for Dole, children earn points by giving healthy

foods—fruits and vegetables—to friends and by throwing junk foods—

soda and chips—in the trash can; see Figure 2), teach them about prod-

uct characteristics (e.g., The Bazooka History Trivia advergame informs

children of the history of Bazooka bubble gum), or teach them about

other subject areas (e.g., science, alphabet).

A growing number of researchers have advocated the educational

potential of interactive games (Federation of American Scientists

2006; Lieberman 2006; Ritterfeld and Weber 2006). For example, fun

interactive games have the capacity to hold the attention of game players

(Federation of American Scientists 2006). Additionally, immediate per-

formance feedback and scorekeeping offered in games may help game

players evaluate progress toward their goals (Garris, Ahlers, and Driskell

2002). Further, allowing game players to customize their game experiences

may tailor learning to each player (Federation of American Scientists 2006).

Given these educational benefits of interactive games, the current study

examines to what extent food marketers use advergames to educate children.

This leads to our second research question:


RQ2: To what extent do food advergames serve to educate children?

PRODUCT CATEGORY AND NUTRITIONAL PROFILES

OF FOODS

As discussed earlier, exposure to television food advertising has been

demonstrated to affect children’s food preferences and requests (Atkin

1976; Rollins 2004). One of the main reasons for concerns over television

food advertising aimed at children has been the fact that the advertised

foods tend to lack nutritional value. From 1972 through 1999, the top

advertised food category was cereal, followed closely by candy/cookies/

gum/snacks and then beverages (Reece, Rifon, and Rodriguez 1999). More

recently, nutritionists found that candy, sweets, and soft drinks dominated,

followed by convenience foods, breads, and cereals (Harrison and Marske

2005).

In addition to types of food products, researchers have also examined the

nutritional content of the food products advertised to children on television

(Harrison and Marske 2005; Kuribayashi, Roberts, and Johnson 2001; Lee

and Tseng 2006). Kuribayashi, Roberts, and Johnson (2001) found that

most of the food products advertised to children were high in fat, sodium,

cholesterol, and sugar. This research was recently replicated by Lee and

Tseng (2006). They found that about 89% of the foods advertised during

FIGURE 2

Educational Function: ‘‘Vending Machine Mania’’


children’s television programming were classified as ‘‘unhealthy.’’ Among

those foods, most were especially high in sugar.

Due to concerns about the potential impact of food advergames on child-

ren’s food preferences, it is worthwhile to examine the product category

and nutritional content of foods featured in advergames. This leads to

the following research questions:

RQ3: What types of food products are featured in advergames?

RQ4: What proportion of the food products in advergames are low-nutrient foods?

METHOD

To answer the previously stated research questions, this study analyzed

the content of advergames targeting children appearing on top food market-

ers’ Web sites from July through September 2006. This study also analyzed

the published nutritional content of the food products promoted in those

advergames.

Sample Selection

Several steps were taken to acquire an adequate sample of the games

that food marketers use to target children. The first step was to identify

the food marketers and brands that appear to be promoting their products

to children or marketing them to families with children. Two research

assistants visited the Web sites of 150 companies identified as being

among the top 25 food companies in each of the six major food categories

(i.e., baked goods, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, meals and entrees,

meat and poultry, and snacks/appetizers/side dishes) (Refrigerated &

Frozen Foods 2006), the Web sites of the top 10 fast food companies

(Brandweek 2006), and the Web sites of the top 10 family restaurant com-

panies (Nation’s Restaurant News 2006) based on U.S. sales in 2005. The

top-selling food companies were selected because they are more likely to

be known and seen by a large number of consumers, thus having the

potential to influence consumer food choices and eating habits. For

the purposes of this study, a large sampling frame, including as many

brands as could be located, was desired in order to examine brands that

might be targeted to or consumed by children. To be as thorough as

possible, brands were selected for inclusion unless they were clearly


not child oriented. Among the 170 companies described above, 47 were

found to offer 139 brands representing products consumed by or targeted

to children and families with children (Appendix 1). These brands are

comparable to the list of brands analyzed by Moore and Rideout (2007).

The second step was to identify the games appearing on the Web sites of

the food marketers targeting children. The two research assistants revisited

theWeb sites of the 139 brands and found a total of 632 games. The number

of games posted on each Web site ranged from zero (e.g., wendys.com) to

eighty (e.g., postopia.com). As a final step, a random number generator

(www.randomizer.org) was used to randomly select 46% (N ¼ 290) of

the games for content analysis. Thirty-nine games were dropped from

the subsequent analyses because they could not be located later for inter-

coder disagreement resolution or access to the games was limited (e.g.,

‘‘stamps’’ were required to access some games, available only if earned

by playing other games first). Thus, a total of 251 games were included

in the analysis.

Stage I: Content Analysis of Advergames

The first stage involved a content analysis of food advergames for chil-

dren. To develop a code sheet for the advergames, previous studies that

analyzed the content of advergames were reviewed (Moore 2006; Lee

and Youn 2008). The content of some of the advergames appearing on

the food marketer Web sites was then analyzed to identify new features.

The code sheet included the presence and the types of brand identifiers

in advergames, the product category of brands featured in advergames,

the types of strategies used by the food marketers to integrate foods into

the advergames, and the educational functions served by the advergames.

The unit of analysis for stage I was an advergame.

A necessary condition for meeting the definition of an advergame was

that at least one type of brand identifier was present within the game or

around the game frame. If the game met this definition, the types of brand

identifiers were coded into four categories: brand logos, branded food

items, product packages, and brand spokescharacters (e.g., Mr. Peanut,

M&M’s Crispy) (Moore 2006). Information was then collected on the type

of food products: bread and pastries, breakfast cereals, candy and gum,

cookies and crackers, fruit juice, ice cream, peanut butter and jelly, pre-

pared foods and meals, restaurants, salty snacks, soft drinks, other snacks,

and others (Moore 2006). Next, the types of brand integration—whether the

brand identifiers were integrated as active game components, embedded as


billboard-style ads within the advergames, or displayed around the adver-

game frames—were coded. If the brand identifiers were integrated as active

game components, the information was then further coded on whether the

brands were used as equipment or tools, primary objects that children were

required to obtain to earn points or to move to a higher level of skill and/or

secondary objects that children were encouraged to collect to earn ‘‘bonus’’

points or ‘‘extra’’ energy. Finally, three different educational functions of

advergames were identified: to teach children about healthy eating habits,

to teach them about product characteristics, and to teach them about other

subjects (e.g., science, history, and alphabet). The educational function of

an advergame was operationalized as a function to convey information ‘‘to

lead one to know or to show how to do something’’ (Blosser and Roberts

1985, 469).

After developing the code sheet for the content of the advergames, two

coders (highly experienced, male game players) received extensive training

on how to code each feature of the advergames. After jointly coding several

advergames to make sure that they understood each feature in the same

way, the coders individually test coded twenty-six food advergames not

included in the study sample. After the training sessions, each of the

two coders independently coded all the games selected for this study (N¼ 251). After the two coders coded all the games independently, intercoder

reliability was then measured using the coefficient of reliability (Holsti

1969). The overall coefficient of reliability was 89.2%, ranging from

80.1% to 96% (see Table 1), exceeding the acceptable level of 80% sug-

gested in content analysis texts (Lombard, Snyder-Duch, and Bracken

2002). All disagreements were reconciled after the two coders revisited

and discussed the advergames examined.

Stage II: Nutritional Content of Advertised Foods

The content analysis of the identified advergames revealed a total of

150 unique food products. Because each advergame could include mul-

tiple food products and each product could appear in multiple adver-

games, the unit of analysis for stage II was a food product. After

finishing the first stage of analysis, another graduate research assistant

obtained the nutritional content of those food products by examining

nutritional facts labels on company Web sites and on products in grocery

stores. Nutritional facts labels of 8 products of the total 150 unique food

products were not available. Thus, the nutritional content of 142 food

products was included in the analysis.


Eight types of nutritional information were coded: serving size, calories,

calories from fat, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol, and sugar.

Following previous studies (Kuribayashi, Roberts, and Johnson 2001,

313), a food product was then classified as a low-nutrient food when it

met one or more of the following criteria:

1. More than 30% of its calories per serving are from fat.

2. It contains more than 360 mg of sodium per serving.

3. It contains more than 35 mg of cholesterol per serving.

4. More than one-third of its calories per serving are from sugar.

TABLE 1

Intercoder Reliability

Variables Reliability (%)

Food product category 91.7

Presence of brand identifiers

Brand logo 92.4

Branded food item 88.4

Product package 90.8

Brand spokescharacter 93.6

Brand as active game component I

Brand logo 89.2




Brand as active game component II

Brand as tool/equipment 80.1

Brand as primary object 84.5

Brand as secondary object 84.9

Brand in background within game

Brand logo 88.0




Brand around game

Brand logo 91.6




Game functions

Teach about product 94.4

Teach about health 94.8

Teach about other subjects 96.0


RESULTS

Profile of Food Advergames Sample

The majority (87.6%, N¼ 220) of the games sampled in this study (N¼251) integrated some type of brand identifier, meeting the definition of an

advergame. The most prevalent form of brand identifier was the brand logo

(present in 90.9% of the advergames), followed by the product package

(40.5%), the branded food item (36.8%), and the brand spokescharacter

(36.8%). It is important to note that many games contained multiple types

of brand identifiers.

Brand Integration in Food Advergames

Advertisers have used different strategies to embed brand identifiers in

advergames. The first RQ1 asked what types of brand integration strategies

food marketers use to target children. Of the three different brand integra-

tion strategies that were identified, 67.1% of the advergames that were stud-

ied integrated brand identifiers as active game components. Brand logos

(43%) were most frequently used as active game components, followed

by brand spokescharacters (41.6%), branded food items (39.6%), and

product packages (37.2%).

Further, this study identified how food marketers integrated their brand

identifiers as active game components in advergames. Among the adver-

games in which brand identifiers were used as active game components

(N ¼ 147), 69.1% of the advergames used brands as tools or equipment.

The findings also reveal that 46.7% of the games used brands as primary

objects that children are required to obtain in order to win the game,

whereas 22% used them as secondary objects that children are encouraged

to collect in order to earn bonus points or extra energy.

Additionally, 54.3% of the advergames integrated brand identifiers as

billboard-style ads within the games. The majority of the billboard-style

ads in the advergames included brand logos (88.3%), followed by product

packages (25.2%), branded food items (20%), and brand spokescharacters

(18.5%). Finally, 67.9% of the advergames examined in this study dis-

played brand identifiers around their game frames. Brand logos

(89.3%) were also ranked at the top in integrating brand identifiers around

the game frames, followed by brand spokescharacters (26%), product

packages (16.9%), and branded food items (8.0%). Note that each game

could have multiple brand identifiers and brand integration strategies (see

Table 2).


Educational Functions of Food Advergames

This study investigated the educational functions of food advergames for

children (RQ2). Despite the educational benefits of interactive games, very

few advergames were found to educate children: 2.7% of the food adver-

games analyzed appeared to educate children about nutritional and health

issues, another 2.7% of the advergames served to teach children about prod-

uct characteristics, and 1.4% of the advergames appeared to teach children

about other subjects (e.g., alphabet).

Product Category and Nutritional Content of Foods Featured

in Advergames

This study examined the product category (RQ3) and nutritional content

(RQ4) of the food products that appeared in the advergames. Consistent

with previous studies in children’s television food advertising, candy

and gum (28.6%) was the most frequently featured in advergames, fol-

lowed by cereals (19.5%), soft drinks (9.5%), and salty snacks (7.5%).

Regarding the nutritional content of the food products, 83.8% of the food

products advertised in the advergames were classified as low-nutrient

foods. The nutritional breakdown of the advertised foods indicated that

59.9% of the foods were high in sugar, 30.3% were high in fat, 5.6% were

TABLE 2

Brand Integration Strategy

Type of Brand Integration Strategy Percent of Games

Active game components 67.1

Brand logo 43.0

Brand character 41.6



Billboard ads in game 54.3

Brand logo 88.3




Ads on game frame 67.9

Brand logo 89.3



Product package 8.0

Note: Percentages do not add up to 100 because some advergames used multiple brand integration

strategies and identifiers.


high in sodium, and 2.1% were high in cholesterol. It is important to note

that each product could have one or more of the low-nutrient food

qualifiers.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Food marketing to children has been considered as a potential factor

contributing to the rising childhood obesity rate in the United States.

The birth of advergames and the practice of food marketers using them

to target children have stimulated discussions among consumer advocates

and policy makers about the potential impact of such a new interactive

advertising tactic on children (Mallinckrodt and Mizerski 2007; Moore

and Rideout 2007; Weber, Story, and Harnack 2006). Despite the growing

concerns and previous attempts to examine the extent of food advergames,

little is known about the nature of food advergames aimed at children. This

study extends previous studies by examining how brands are integrated in

the advergames featured on top-selling food marketers’ Web sites, to what

extent the food advergames serve to educate children, and the product cat-

egory and nutritional content of the food products that appear in those

advergames.

The findings in this study reveal that a number of the top-selling food

marketers heavily used interactive children’s games on their Web sites.

Among those games appearing on the foodmarketers’Web sites, the major-

ity of the games (approximately 88%) were advergames designed to pro-

mote a company’s brand(s). The prevalence of advergames on food

marketers’ Web sites found in this study supports Weber, Story, and

Harnack’s (2006) andMoore and Rideout’s (2007) content analyses of food

marketers’ Web sites conducted in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

Moreover, the findings of this study indicate that in many advergames

(approximately 67.1% of the sample), children were invited to actively play

with the foods. It is worth noting that children have been playing with plas-

tic foods in pretend play for a long time. Food advergames provide children

with new alternative ways to play with the foods. Recent findings of

Mallinckrodt and Mizerski’s (2007) study, which demonstrated the impact

of integrated branded foods as active advergame components on children’s

preference for the foods promoted in the game, shed light on the persuasive

potential of playing with foods in advergames. Such effects may be due to

the immersive and interactive nature of advergame playing; previous

research has found that interactivity of a medium leads to a more positive

attitude toward the medium and an increased involvement with the medium

among adult consumers (Johnson, Bruner, and Kumar 2006; McMillan and


Hwang 2002). Future research should examine how the interactivity of

advergame playing and resulting telepresence influence children’s prefer-

ences for the advertised food brands.

More specifically, the findings in this study demonstrated that among the

advergames in which brands were integrated as active game components,

the brands were most frequently used as tools or equipment that children are

required to use, followed by as primary objects that children are required to

obtain in order to earn points or to move to a higher level of skill and as

secondary objects that children are encouraged to collect in order to earn

bonus points or extra energy. Future research is needed to examine the

effects of different brand integration strategies in advergames on children’s

food consumption and perceptions about benefits of food products adver-

tised in the advergames. According to Piaget (1959), young children cannot

distinguish reality from fantasy. It would therefore be interesting to exam-

ine age differences in such effects as well.

The findings in this study also reveal that, despite the educational

benefits of interactive games (Federation of American Scientists 2006;

Lieberman 2006; Ritterfeld and Weber 2006), very few food advergames

were found to serve to educate children about nutritional and health issues,

leaving much room for improvement. Food marketers have started to

address this issue. The Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative

(2006), a voluntary self-regulation program created by the CBBB and now

including thirteen of the largest food and beverage companies, recently

committed its member companies to the promotion of healthy dietary

options and to incorporating healthy lifestyle messages into advergames

aimed at children younger than age twelve. Specifically, the healthy life-

style messages include messages that encourage physical activity and

that motivate healthy eating habits, consistent with ‘‘USDA Dietary

GuidelinesandMyPyramid’’ (TheChildren’sFoodandBeverageAdvertising

Initiative 2006). Such efforts to create or sponsor interactive games with

educational messages for children align with many of the food marketers’

own statements of social responsibility. For instance, some companies

(e.g., Kellogg Company) claim that they are devoted to helping improve

America’s health and wellness by providing grants to schools, nonprofit

organizations, and communities. Food marketers can contribute to improv-

ing the health of America’s children by developing educational games to

teach children about nutrition and healthy lifestyles.

The findings of this study also demonstrated that the most frequently

advertised food category in advergames was candy and gum, followed

by cereals, soft drinks, and salty snacks. Further, most of the food products

promoted in advergames were nutritionally poor, having an excessive


amount of sugar or fat. It is not new that the foods advertised to children

tend to lack nutritional value. With Mallinckrodt and Mizerski’s (2007)

compelling evidence that advergames influence children’s food preferen-

ces, however, the prevalence of food advergames for such low-nutrient

foods aimed at children may pose a concern to parents, consumer advo-

cates, and policy makers. Most likely in response to these concerns about

the effects of food advertising on children, eleven major food marketers in

the United States, including Kellogg, McDonald’s, and Campbell Soup,

recently publicly committed to phasing out advertising of foods that do

not meet specific nutritional guidelines in any medium primarily aimed

at children younger than age twelve; thirteen companies had agreed to par-

ticipate in this initiative at the time this article was written (CBBB 2007;

FTC 2008a). The data for this study were collected prior to the food market-

ers’ announced limitations on advertising low-nutrient foods to children

younger than age twelve. Building on the findings reported here, future

research could examine whether the proportion of low-nutrient foods pro-

moted in advergames aimed at children increases, decreases, or remains

constant after the food marketers’ recent announcement. Future studies

can also aid in determining whether food marketers are following FTC

(2008b) recommendations to adopt meaningful, nutrition-based standards

in marketing to children.

One problem facing policy makers in the evolving advertising environ-

ment is the absence of reliable data concerning the extent and nature of new

interactive marketing tactics used to target children and the effects of such

emerging tactics on children (Institute of Medicine of the National

Academies 2006). This study adds to what we know about how food mar-

keters target children on the Internet, as recommended by the FTC and

Department of Health & Human Services (2006). Given that it is the col-

lective nature of messages that ultimately influence vulnerable consumers

such as children (Wolburg 2005), understanding the breadth and nature of

advergames is a necessary step toward understanding their effects on chil-

dren specifically and society in general. While a content analysis, such as

this study, is descriptive and does not demonstrate the effects of food adver-

games on children, the groundwork laid in this study can be a good starting

point for future research on this important topic. Specifically, consistent

with one of the established contributions of content analyses (Huhmann

and Brotherton 1997; Koble and Burnett 1991), a more complete picture

of food advergames for children will help researchers develop relevant

research hypotheses regarding the effects of advergame playing on child-

ren’s food choices by examining the specific tactics that are being used by

food marketers.


APPENDIX 1

Samples: Brands and Companies

Brands Company Name

A&W Restaurant, Inc. Yum Brands

A&W Root Beer Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.

Airheads Perfetti Van Melle, Inc.

AlphaBits Kraft Foods, Inc.

Altoids W.M. Wrigley Jr. Company

Amy’s Amy’s Kitchen, Inc.

Applejacks Kellogg Company

Baby Ruth Nestle S.A.

Ball Park Sara Lee Corporation

Barqs The Coca-Cola Company

Bazooka Topps

Ben and Jerry’s Unilever

Big League Chew W.M. Wrigley Jr. Company

Big Red W.M. Wrigley Jr. Company

Birds Eye Birds Eye Foods

Blueberry Ice Cream Wells’ Dairy, Inc.

Bomb Pop Wells’ Dairy, Inc.

Brach’s Brach’s

Bubble Tape Wrigley’s

Bubblicious Cadbury Adams USA LLC

Bunny Bread Flowers Food Specialty

Burger King Burger King Brands, Inc.

Butterfinger Nestle S.A.

Campbell’s Soup Campbell Soup Company

Cap’n Crunch Quaker Oats

Capri Sun Kraft Foods, Inc.

Cheerios General Mills

Cheetos Frito-Lay

Chef Boyardee ConAgra Foods

Chips Ahoy! Kraft Foods, Inc.

Cocoa Crispies Kellogg Company

Coke The Coca-Cola Company

Corn Pops Kellogg Company

Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.

Cracker Jacks Frito-Lay

Creme Savers W.M. Wrigley Jr. Company

Crispix Kellogg Company

Crunch Nestle S.A.

Dannon Group Danone

Dasani The Coca-Cola Company

Dole Dole Food Company

Dr. Pepper Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.

Drake’s Interstate Bakeries Corporation

Eggo Kellogg Company

Ellios Pizza McCain Foods Limited

Fanta The Coca-Cola Company

Fresca The Coca-Cola Company

Friendly’s Friendly Ice Cream Corporation


APPENDIX 1

Continued

Brands Company Name

Fritos Frito-Lay

Froot Loops Kellogg Company

Frosted Flakes Kellogg Company

Frosted Mini Wheats Kellogg Company

Fruit by the Foot General Mills

Fruit Flavored Snacks Kellogg Company

Fruit Gushers General Mills

Full Throttle The Coca-Cola Company

Goldfish Campbell Soup Company

Hawaiian Punch Cadbury Schweppes plc

Heinz Heinz

Hershey’s Hershey’s

Honey Smacks Kellogg Company

Hood ice cream bars H.P. Hood LLC

Hormel Kids kitchen Hormel Foods

Hostess Interstate Bakeries Corporation

Hubba Bubba W.M. Wrigley Jr. Company

IBC Rootbeer Cadbury Schweppes plc

Icee J & J Snack Foods

Iron Kids Bread Sara Lee Corporation

JIF peanut butter J.M. Smucker’s Company

Juicy Fruit W.M. Wrigley Jr. Company

Juicy Juice Nestle S.A.

Keebler Kellogg Company

Kellogg’s Kellogg Company

KFC Yum Brands

Kid Cuisine ConAgra Foods

Kit Kat Nestle S.A.

Kool-Aid Kraft Foods, Inc.

Lays Frito-Lay

Lifesavers W.M. Wrigley Jr. Company

Lipton Pepsico., Inc.

Little Debbie McKee Foods Corporation

Long John Silvers Yum Brands

Lowerys Frito-Lay

Lucky Charms General Mills

Lunchables Kraft Foods, Inc.

M&M’s Mars, Inc.

McDonald’s McDonald’s Corporation

Mini-Swirlz Kellogg Company

Minute Maid The Coca-Cola Company

Motts Cadbury Schweppes plc

Mountain Dew Pepsico., Inc.

Mug Root Beer Pepsico., Inc.

Nabisco Kraft Foods, Inc.

Nantucket Nectars Cadbury Schweppes plc

Nesquik Nestle S.A.

Nestle ice cream Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Holdings


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Documents

Playing With Food: Content Analysis of Food Advergames