SynthesisObesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity2015
Influence of food companies' brand mascots and entertainment companies' cartoon media characters on children's diet and health: a systematic review and research needs.
Synthesis in Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 89 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
89 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 275 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact on dietary outcomes of licensed and brand equity characters in marketing unhealthy foods to children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2022Pooled it
- Measuring the Power of Food Marketing to Children: a Review of Recent Literature.Current nutrition reports · 2019Pooled it
- Effects of front-of-package nutrition labelling systems on objective understanding and purchase intention in El Salvador: results from a multi-arm parallel-group randomised controlled trial.European journal of nutrition · 2025Trial
- Genetic associations with consumption of palatable foods in the absence of hunger in response to food cues in children.Pediatric obesity · 2025Trial
- Examining the effects of brand and licensed characters on parents' perceptions of Children's breakfast cereals.Appetite · 2024Trial
- The Role of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labels with and without Explanatory Videos on Parent and Child Food Choices.Nutrients · 2023Trial
- Digital Educational Strategies to Teach Skin Self-examination to Individuals at Risk for Skin Cancer.Journal of health communication · 2022Trial
- Objective understanding of front of pack warning labels among Mexican children of public elementary schools. A randomized experiment.Nutrition journal · 2022Trial
- Obesity prevention practices in early care and education settings: an adaptive implementation trial.Implementation science : IS · 2022Trial
- Trial
- The impact of front-of-package claims, fruit images, and health warnings on consumers' perceptions of sugar-sweetened fruit drinks: Three randomized experiments.Preventive medicine · 2020Trial
- A mixed methods protocol for developing and testing implementation strategies for evidence-based obesity prevention in childcare: a cluster randomized hybrid type III trial.Implementation science : IS · 2017Trial
- Trial
- A Growing Problem: Increases in Child-Appealing Marketing on Infant and Young Children's Foods in Australia (2015 vs 2024).Maternal & child nutrition · 2026Article
- Review
- Color Development in Carotenoid-Enriched Bigels: Effects of Extraction Method, Saponification, and Oleogel-to-Hydrogel Ratios on CIELAB Parameters.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Investigation of Advertising and Food Environment Surrounding Primary Schools in New Zealand.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Article
- The power of product: how food advertising affects children's perceptions of child and non-child targeted food advertising?BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Reducing the extent and persuasive power of marketing unhealthy foods to children worldwide are important obesity prevention goals. Research is limited to understand how brand mascots and cartoon media characters influence children's diet. We conducted a systematic review of five electronic databases (2000-2014) to identify experimental studies that measured how food companies' mascots and entertainment companies' media characters influence up to 12 diet-related cognitive, behavioural and health outcomes for children under 12 years. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies used 21 unique popular media characters, but no brand mascots. Results suggest that cartoon media character branding can positively increase children's fruit or vegetable intake compared with no character branding. However, familiar media character branding is a more powerful influence on children's food preferences, choices and intake, especially for energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods (e.g. cookies, candy or chocolate) compared with fruits or vegetables. Future research should use a theoretically grounded conceptual model and larger and more diverse samples across settings to produce stronger findings for mediating and moderating factors. Future research can be used to inform the deliberations of policymakers, practitioners and advocates regarding how media character marketing should be used to support healthy food environments for children.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.