Establishing and explaining the impact of characters on young children’s healthy food choices

Worldwide the number of overweight children rises dramatically. One way to prevent overweight is by creating healthy eating habits from a very young age. This dissertation explores whether and how 4- to 6-year-olds’ fruit and vegetable choices can be stimulated by using an immensely popular marketing technique: cartoon characters. It specifically looks at the impact of characters on packaging and in pictures books. The results present two relatively easy and fun ways to stimulate children’s fruit and vegetable choices: (1) by placing a character on the package that fits conceptually well with the fruit or vegetable in the package, and (2) by interactive shared reading of a picture book about a character eating a certain fruit or vegetable. By demonstrating how and under which conditions a character is most effective, this dissertation provides essential information needed for the development of successful health interventions for young children.