A mixed-methods study of American Millennials' views about celebrity endorsement of foods and beverages

Examining school nutrition policies and their effect on the promotion of low-nutrient foods in the context of sports advertising

OBJECTIVES

Despite recommendations to implement nutrition standards in schools, low-nutrient foods and high-energy drinks are still some of the most important challenges for school management and students' purchasing and consumption behavior. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to examine school nutrition policies and their effect on the promotion of low-nutrient foods in the context of sports advertising.

METHODS

A partial least square technique with SmartPLS 3.0 and bootstrapping with 500 resamples was used to examine the effect of food marketing on school nutrition policies and students' nutritional involvement. Online surveys were done through The Iranian Educational Network of students and measured on a 5-point Likert scale. The survey questionnaire consisted of 3 scales to measure the following: school nutrition policies, advertising of low-nutrient foods, and student nutritional involvement.

RESULTS

Results from a sample of 382 Iranian high school students revealed that low-nutrient food advertising has a significant effect on student consumption, and the greatest overall effect on students' nutritional involvement. School nutrition policies were affected by media, endorsement, and the environmental advertising, whereas school financial capabilities had the greatest direct effect on students' nutritional involvement.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that advertising through sports media plays a mediating role in school nutrition policies and student nutritional involvement. Policy changes to restrict food marketing for young people must include both television and non-broadcast media.

The moderating influence of celebrity endorsement on intention to engage in infection prevention behaviours

Although the use of celebrities for communication within social marketing to influence voluntary behaviour change has received significant attention, its application to promote infection preventive behaviours, such as frequent handwashing with soap, has received limited attention. Using the health belief model (HBM), the study examined the moderating effect of celebrity endorsement (CE) on the relationship between the predictors of HBM such as perceived severity, susceptibility, benefits, barriers, self-efficacy and target audiences' intention to avoid handshaking, frequently wash hands with soap and cover mouth with an elbow when coughing. Data from 562 respondents were analysed using PLS-SEM. The result shows that CE significantly moderate the relationship between target audiences' perception of severity, susceptibility, self-efficacy and cues to action and intention to perform the recommended infection preventive behaviours. Thus, when a celebrity is employed as a conduit for delivering a social marketing message, particularly about infection preventive behaviour, target audiences are more likely to take action to perform the recommended behaviour. Theoretically, the study shows that although the HBM has been extensively applied to explain health-related behaviours, using celebrities to endorse the various constructs of the HBM significantly enhances the predictive ability of the model.