Marketing cereal to children: Content analysis of messages on children's and adults' cereal packages

This study compares messages displayed on children's and adults' cereal boxes. In total, 127 cereal boxes were collected and content analysed. On the front panel, we found an interesting contradiction between health-related textual and graphical messages. The nutrient claim appeared on more than half of cereals for children, which is significantly higher coverage compared with that of adult cereals. On the other hand, the representation of a bowl of cereal was far more likely to appear artificially coloured or sweetened on child-targeted cereal boxes and contain less fruits and nuts compared with adult-targeted cereals. Results on the back and side panels showed that messages targeting adults are mostly health related (e.g. well-being, purity) while messaging to children focuses less on health-related messages and more on games, toys and other entertaining topics. Nutritionally, child-targeted cereals overall are less nutritious than adult-targeted cereals and have higher rankings of sugar sources in the ingredients. This study calls for a critical consideration about not only on what is in the cereal box but also what is on the box.