title: Counter-advertising may reduce parent's susceptibility to front-of-package promotions on unhealthy foods.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Assess the effect of counter-advertisements on parents' appraisals of unhealthy foods featuring front-of-package promotions (FOPPs).
  
  
  METHODS
  A 2 × 2 × 5 between-subjects Web-based experiment. Parents were randomly shown an advertisement (counter-advertisement challenging FOPP/control advertisement) and then a pair of food products from the same category: an unhealthy product featuring an FOPP (nutrient content claim/sports celebrity endorsement) and a healthier control product with no FOPP.
  
  
  METHODS
  Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1,269 Australian-based parents of children aged 5-12 years recruited from an online panel.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents nominated which product they would prefer to buy and which they thought was healthier, then rated the unhealthy product and FOPP on various characteristics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Differences between advertisement conditions were assessed using logistic regression (product choice tasks) and analysis of variance tests (ratings of unhealthy product and FOPP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with parents who saw a control advertisement, parents who saw a counter-advertisement perceived unhealthy products featuring FOPPs as less healthy, expressed weaker intentions for buying such products, and were more likely to read the nutrition facts panel before nominating choices (all P < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Counter-advertising may help reduce the misleading influence of unhealthy food marketing and improve the accuracy of parents' evaluations of how nutritious promoted food products are.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria, Victoria, Australia. Electronic address: Helen.Dixon@cancervic.org.au.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Maree
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scully
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Bridget
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Donovan
authors.affiliation: Cancer Council New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wakefield
mesh_terms: D056352:Athletes; D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D053198:Child Nutrition Sciences / Q000193:education*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005197:Famous Persons; D057140:Fast Foods / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D018857:Food Packaging / Q000191:economics; D005607:Fraud / Q000191:economics; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000191:economics
keywords: advertising; front-of-package labeling; front-of-package promotions; marketing; nutrition; parents