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This paper aims to investigate consumers’ demand patterns for products with nutritional benefits and products with no nutritional benefits across processed healthy and unhealthy foods. This paper integrates price changes (i.e. increases and decreases) into a demand model and quantifies their relative impact on the quantity of food purchased. First, how demand patterns vary across processed healthy and unhealthy products is investigated; second, how demand patterns vary across nutrition-benefited (NB) products and non-nutrition-benefited (NNB) products is examined; and third, how consumers respond to price increases and decreases for NB across processed healthy and unhealthy foods is investigated.

Here, a demand model quantifying scenarios for price changes in consumer food choice behaviour is proposed, and controlled for heterogeneity at household, store and brand levels.

Consumers exhibit greater sensitivity to price decreases and less sensitivity to price increases across both processed healthy and unhealthy foods. Moreover, the research shows that consumers’ demand sensitivity is greater for NNB products than for NB products, supporting our prediction that NB products have higher brand equity than NNB products. Furthermore, the research shows that consumers are more responsive to price decreases than price increases for processed healthy NB foods, but more responsive to price increases than price decreases for unhealthy NB foods. The findings suggest that consumers exhibit a desirable demand pattern for products with nutritional benefits.

Although studies on the effects of nutritional benefits on demand have proliferated in recent years, researchers have only estimated their impact without considering the effect of price changes. This paper contributes by examining consumers’ price sensitivity for NB products across processed healthy and unhealthy foods based on consumer scanner data, considering both directionalities of price changes.

Scholars have noted the impact of advertising on unhealthy food consumption. However, a systematic literature review (SLR) on this topic is currently lacking. This study aims to find, analyze and synthesize prior literature to set the stage for future researchers and practitioners. It also uncovers research gaps, suggests potential research questions and presents a conceptual framework for use in future research.

This paper catalogs and synthesizes topic-related literature by using the time-tested SLR methodology. It identifies and analyzes 99 relevant studies that have addressed the impact of advertising on unhealthy food consumption. Research profiling of the selected studies supported the synthesis of key themes in the extant literature.

The authors identify three key thematic foci: a) viewer attributes pertaining to excessive unhealthy food consumption, b) advertisement attributes pertaining to excessive unhealthy food consumption and, c) unhealthy food consumption regulation. Within these themes, the authors also identify some subthemes, presenting specific advertising and viewer attributes that contribute to unhealthy food consumption. The authors further develop a conceptual framework based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, summarizing the findings of the study. This could aid future researchers and practitioners in their design of certain strategies.

The study uncovers various gaps in the extant literature and suggests potential areas that can be examined by scholars. From a practical perspective, the study recommends certain actionable strategies for policymakers, helping customers to achieve the long-term goal of obesity reduction.

From the perspective of practice, the study recommends certain actionable strategies for policymakers helping customers achieve the long-term goal of obesity reduction.

The current study makes a novel contribution to the research on advertising and unhealthy food consumption by identifying theme-based research gaps in the existing literature, mapping those with potential research questions and presenting a conceptual framework based on the S-O-R model. Based on the findings, the study also proposes five potential research models examining diverse aspects of advertising and unhealthy food consumption to guide interested scholars and practitioners to shape the future research discourse.

This paper aims to address how adding food ingredients to a packaged base food affects consumers’ calorie estimation of the new augmented product.

The four performed experiments and analyses of variance demonstrate an underlying psychological mechanism, explained below.

Results show that the healthiness of the added food ingredient (AFI) does not matter if the base food is healthy, and consumers’ calorie estimates of the augmented packaged food product are accurate. When, however, the food base is unhealthy, and the AFI is healthy, consumers underestimate the new product calories. This underestimation effect increases further when the healthy ingredients multiply. This underestimation effect endures when these ingredients are presented in a visual form, but it becomes smaller when these ingredients are presented in a verbal form. A justification mechanism is relevant.

Further research should test across the broader range of the food product matrix. There is a great diversity of AFI presentations, and further research may deal with the impact of AFIs of these different forms on consumers’ calorie estimation and healthiness perceptions. Research may also test sensory-arousing mechanisms that can help understand how consumers perceive the calories of the augmented food.

The findings suggest that consumers should be cautious of the judgment bias caused by the presence of an AFI on food packages and raise their awareness regarding nutrition implications and dietary effects. From the perspective of food manufacturers, although adding healthy AFIs to unhealthy base foods may increase consumers’ purchase intention and bring higher profits, it may not be sustainable as a marketing strategy in the long term and has immediate ethical implications.

Policymakers should introduce voluntary schemes to monitor and restrict the improper presentation of AFIs, aiming to rule out the abuse of healthy AFIs on unhealthy packaged food.

This work offers three major original and valuable contributions. It explains the effects of AFIs on calorie estimation and consumer healthiness perceptions in a context not studied before, namely, packaged food products. Next, it advances the literature on consumer judgment error and heuristics concerning product package attributes. As adding ingredients is integral to product line extension decisions, the results also clarify how marketing can safeguard firm social responsibility in combating obesity.

This paper aims to examine how, why and when incidental curiosity might have an influence on consumers’ unhealthy eating behaviors in a subsequent, irrelevant context.

Three experiments were conducted. Study 1 tested the basic main effect; Study 2 further tested the proposed process; Study 3 identified an important moderator and offered additional support for the mechanism.

Study 1 demonstrated the basic main effect that incidental curiosity increases consumers’ preference for unhealthy food. Study 2 replicated the effect in a simulated grocery-shopping task and further provided direct process evidence that a reward-approaching orientation underlies the effect of curiosity on unhealthy food choice. Finally, Study 3 identified information nature as an important moderator of the effect. That is, when people are curious about threatening information, they are likely to adopt an avoidance motivation, which prevents them from seeking any unhealthy food.

On the one hand, consumers could benefit from being educated that incidental exposure to curiosity cues might lead to unhealthy eating behaviors. On the other hand, public policymakers and responsible marketers should be mindful that, though widely used in marketing, the tactics that elicit consumers’ curiosity might sometimes backfire and undermine their healthy food choices.

This research contributes to the curiosity literature by demonstrating that incidental curiosity could have motivational impacts in the non-information domain, such as food choice. It also adds to the food decision literature by documenting incidental curiosity as an important situational factor of consumers’ food decisions.

This study aims to examine adolescents’ social media environment connected to unhealthy food marketing. As social media have become a ubiquitous part of young people’s everyday lives, marketers have also shifted their focus to these channels. Literature on this phenomenon is still scarce and often takes a quite narrow view of the role of marketing in social media. Furthermore, the experiences of the adolescents are seldom considered.

Using a sociocultural approach and netnographic methodology, this study presents findings from a research project conducted in Finland. The data consist of both social media material and focus group interviews with adolescents.

The findings elaborate on unhealthy food marketing to adolescents in social media from two perspectives: sociocultural representations of unhealthy foods in social media marketing and social media influencers connecting with adolescents.

The study broadens and deepens the current understanding of unhealthy food marketing to adolescents taking place in social media. The study introduces a novel perspective to the topic by looking at it as a sociocultural phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to explore snacking behavior and perspectives on healthy and unhealthy food choices among adolescents in Mainland China.

Four focus-group interviews were conducted. Altogether 24 participants were recruited in Changsha, a second-tier city in China, through a convenience sampling process. They were asked to report their snacking behaviors, identify whether certain snacks are healthy or unhealthy and elaborate on factors affecting food choices.

Snacking was prevalent among the participants. The most frequently consumed snacks included fruit, milk and instant noodles. Participants’ evaluations for the healthiness of foods were based on the actual nutritional values of those foods, the effects on growth and body weight and word-of-mouth. Choice of snack was driven mainly by taste, image, convenience and health consciousness.

The finding was based on a non-probability sample. The paper also did not explore the contexts where snacks were consumed.

Parents can make healthy snacks more accessible at home and at schools. Educators can teach adolescents how to read food labels. Schools can increase the availability of healthy snacks on campus. Social marketers can promote healthy snacks by associating them with fun and high taste.

This is the first paper on snacking behaviors among adolescents conducted in a second-tier city in China using focus-group methodology.

Childhood obesity is a major global health concern. Understanding children's and adolescent’s eating behaviours and promoting healthier behaviours is key for reducing the negative health outcomes associated with obesity. The current study explored the perceptions of healthy eating behaviours and the influences on eating behaviours amongst 11-to-13-year-old secondary school students.

Nine semi-structured same-sex focus group discussions were conducted in schools located in deprived areas of England, with the discussions subjected to a thematic framework analysis.

Three main constructs were identified in the analysis as follows: (1) eating patterns and lifestyle, (2) social influences and (3) environmental influences. Participants understood what healthy eating behaviours are and the benefits of eating healthy; yet, they reported irregular mealtimes and consuming unhealthy snacks. Students reported that their parents and fellow student peers were strong influences on their own eating behaviours, with girls subjected to being teased by male students for attempting to eat healthily. Finally, students perceived that unhealthy foods were cheaper, tasted better and were readily available in their social environments compared to healthier options, making healthier behaviours less likely to occur.

Findings indicate that students had a good understanding of healthy eating behaviours but did not always practise them and are seemingly influenced by their social and environmental context. The promotion of healthier eating in this age group needs to challenge the misperceptions associated with the accessibility and social acceptability of unhealthy food items.

The aim of the research is to investigate how healthy and unhealthy foods (e.g., those of little nutritional value, but high fat and sugar content) are represented in televised advertising, analyzing the differences in persuasive strategies used to promote them.

Content analysis was performed on 62 food advertisings broadcast on the main Italian national TV channels, focusing on target, representation of food consumption, number and gender of the main characters, visual and sound effects (i.e. music jungles etc.) and references to nutritional properties.

Results showed that healthy food products are marketed almost exclusively to adults, using adult-oriented advertising techniques, whereas unhealthy food advertisings rely on communicative formats and appeals more suited for children and adolescents.

The research first investigated, with a simple descriptive approach, how television advertising of unhealthy food products relies on specifically crafted communication in order to attract young consumers' attention and, ultimately, affect their buying intentions.

This article aims to examine young consumers' perceptions of healthy eating, contexts where healthy or unhealthy eating are practiced, and their evaluation of regulatory measures that discourage the consumption of unhealthy foods in two different markets.

A convenience sampled survey was conducted of 386 Danish and Chinese adolescents using a structured questionnaire.

Results showed that perceptions of healthy eating were generally based on concepts such as balance and moderation. Unhealthy eating was most frequently practiced at parties and in festive periods. Hong Kong respondents were more likely to associate eating habits with healthy eating than Danish respondents. Danish respondents were more likely to practice healthy eating at schools than Hong Kong respondents. Making tanks of cold water freely available everywhere was perceived to be most effective in discouraging the consumption of soft drink. There were age, gender and market differences in attitudes toward selected regulatory measures that discourage the consumption of soft drinks.

Health educators and public health campaign designers should design health communication messages that target different perceptions of unhealthy eating, as well as different unhealthy eating contexts. Policy makers should be aware of the difference in local environmental conditions when designing regulations to encourage healthy eating.

The study is an innovative attempt to examine adolescents' perception of healthy eating and attitudes toward food regulatory measures in more than one consumer market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of masculine eating/drinking beliefs on male consumers’ concern with unhealthy eating/drinking habits and, in turn, with binge drinking. Additionally, this research tests if and how a change in these beliefs influences binge drinking intention and intention to eat unhealthy food.

Three studies were conducted in Bogotá (Colombian males; convenience sampling). The purpose of Study 1 (N = 209) was to develop a scale to measure masculine eating/drinking beliefs. Study 2 (N = 191) tested the mediating role of concern with unhealthy eating/drinking habits in the relationship of masculine eating/drinking beliefs with binge drinking. Study 3 (N = 179) was an experimental study, which examined the effect of information about some negative consequences of masculine beliefs on the answers to the masculine eating/drinking beliefs inventory and, in turn, on binge drinking intention and intention to eat unhealthy food.

A one-dimensional (eight-items) scale was developed and validated. The results of this paper show that masculine eating/drinking beliefs are associated with lower concern with unhealthy eating/drinking and, in turn, with higher binge drinking. Information that influences these beliefs leads to lower binge drinking and unhealthy food ingestion intentions.

This research presents the first scale that measures masculine eating/drinking beliefs. It provides initial evidence on how an intervention focused on the negative consequences of sexism can influence these beliefs, affecting binge drinking and overeating intentions.

This research provides new findings on a topic associated with several health problems in many countries, including the effect on consumers’ weight gaining and related illnesses.

This research presents the first scale that measures masculine eating/drinking beliefs. It provides initial evidence about factors (through mediating variables) that link masculine eating/drinking beliefs with some unhealthy eating/drinking habits. In addition, the results show how information about some negative consequences of these beliefs can influence consumers’ binge drinking and unhealthy food ingestion intentions, which leads to key recommendations for future interventions. As a result, this research provides new findings on a topic associated with several health problems in many countries, including the effect on consumers’ weight gaining and related illnesses.