Collectibles make healthy children's food more tasty
It’s a trick McDonald’s learnt long ago — combine a collectible toy with food and you’ll win round the kids every time. And while there are few children who need bribing to eat burger and chips, this marketing tactic could be used to good effect when encouraging kids to eat their greens.
A study of pre-schoolers in the US has shown that meals paired with collectible toys are more likely to be liked and considered tasty.
A healthy meal of soup, mixed vegetables and milk was more likely to be chosen by the 2 – 5 year old children when it was seen to come with a toy that was missing from their collectible set.
In the research 85 preschool children were shown cards with 18 different food images. Among the combinations of meals shown were three variations of a fast food shot — with no toy, a non-collectable one or a pre-defined collectible monster — and a healthier meal with the similar combination of toy options.
As the children in the study learned that certain meals would contain a collectible toy that they did not yet have, the anticipated taste and likability of those meals increased.
Meals without any toys were less desirable and those with collectible toys were the most appealing. Fast-food was preferred by the children when no-toy meals were shown.
[See also: Obese children to be put up for adoption]
One of the researchers, Bettina Cornwell, professor of marketing at the University of Oregon said: “What was interesting to us — even more than we expected — was that the presence of the collectible toy moved the healthier food option up to the point that it was just as likable as the fast-food.”
A secondary experiment involving 56 children involved the addition of another toy although it wasn’t needed to finish their set. They still preferred the meal with a collectible toy but especially those meals with a toy they needed to complete their set.
“It speaks to a child’s motivation to collect and to the potential of repeated food offerings to influence the development of taste preferences,” added Cornwell.
While 92% of parents in the study were against the use of collectible toys for fast-food meals, 73% were happy with the same approach being used if it was encouraging healthier eating.
These findings could be used to good effect to encourage children to make healthier choices. The more they are exposed to healthier foods the more likely they are to make those meal choices of their own volition.
These results, albeit from a small study, come at a time when the developed world is grappling with high incidents of childhood obesity.
The latest figures for the UK show that about three in ten girls and boys aged 2 – 15 were classed as overweight (Body Mass Index (BMI) 25-30) or obese (BMI >30) in 2009 according to data from the NHS Information Centre.
Sixteen per cent of boys and 15% of girls in this age bracket were classed as obese in 2009, up from 11% and 12% respectively in 1995.
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