MARCO

The purpose of this project is a double one: i) to contribute to understanding the causes – the actions developed by marketing in the first place – which make childhood obesity a public health problem in economically developed countries; ii) to see how marketin may – alone or through interactions with other actors concerned (public authorities, parents, school) – contribute to combating this scourge. Obesity is known to be a multifactorial disease whose various determinants act on the child's food behaviour and interact between themselves. Some of these determinants have a genetic or psychological nature whereas others are much more recent and have largely contributed towards the strong increase in the number of overweight children: new ways of life (sedentary activities [television, video games], nomadism, snacking, meal destructuring…), diversified range of high-sugar and/or high-saturated fatty acid products, abandonment of rules, and abdication of parental responsibility in certain family units… When it comes to finding a culprit for this phenomenon, advertising and marketing are generally in the heart of the debates owing to their persuasive nature and the desires which they arouse through offers using all levers of seduction. If it is futile to deny that reality, the phenomenon may, however, only be analysed by putting it into perspective with the social interactions in which the child takes part (family, friends, school). Furthermore, if the techniques used may lead to certain excesses, these may also be resorted to with a view to modifying the attitudes and behaviours in a socially desirable direction. The positive impact of these techniques has been observed on the young people's relationship with tobacco, as well as on the awareness, by numerous drivers, of the dangers of driving too fast or under the influence of alcohol. To what extent could these techniques be activated with a view to giving children a sense of responsibility by educating them about good nutritional practices? Several contributions are expected from this programme: - To understand the impact of food advertisements on the children's cognitive, affective and behavioural responses: do they modify the children's attitude towards the categories of high-sugar and/or high-lipid products, or simply towards the various brands available within these categories? Do the children's attitudes turn into desires? On what conditions do these desires materialize through consumption? What are, by comparison, the responses to an advertisement promoting a nutritionally healthy product? - Does the way a product is presented in the advertisement (idealization, size of portions, consumption situation, proximity of other more well-balanced products…) have an impact on the children's response? - To analyse the related effects of televised advertising and normative pressure exerted by peer groups: is it advertising alone that initiates these responses? Without peer group pressure, would these responses be the same? Can peer groups inhibit the desire, aroused by advertising pressure, to consume a given food product? - How do the transfers of food preferences take place within the family unit: how can children modify their parents' preferences, either by leading the latter to a positive attitude with regard to eating patterns with which they were not familiar (the fact of frequenting fast-food restaurants for example), or by passing on to the family unit the healthy nutritional principles they have been taught at school? - How do children arbitrate their food product choices? Given their innate attraction for sweet food, how do they handle the 'nutrition/pleasure' couple in the relationship they will establish with the industrialists' offers? Is it possible to act on this balance by working on the 'perceived tackiness' of certain products, as has been done with numerous young people for cigarette? - Can a fear-arousing persuasive message be effective with these children? Is it more effective than a message that does not use that lever? Are certain types of fear (of a social nature for example, such as peer rejection) more effective than others (of a health nature for example, such as health risks)? The children who will be in the heart of this research study are between 7 and 12 years of age (from second year in primary school included to first year in secondary school included). A certain number of these problems will be tackled from a transnational point of view as, in addition to the French teams, American, Belgian and Tunisian teachers and researchers will be integrated into the research programme. The latter will be working within their own respective laboratories and, as visiting professors, within the partner teams of the present programme