Dr. Christopher Ferguson and his team studied 75 kids ranging from 3 to 5 years old. They had half the kids watched cartoons with commercials advertising French fries and half for apples slices. Of the kids who watched the French fries commercial, 71% asked for the French fries afterwards. After the children’s parents encouraged them to choose the healthier option, the number only dropped to 55%.
“Parental encouragement to eat healthy was somewhat able to help undo the message of commercials, although the effects of parents were smaller than we had anticipated,” said Dr. Ferguson. The effects of parents were much smaller than Dr. Ferguson had expected.
Of the kids who watched the apple commercial 46% picked French fries. When the parents encouraged the healthier decision the number dropped to 33%. Advertising is a big influence, but parents are not powerless.

I learned that advertising can influence children’s decision on things. Some of the children’s parents are more persuasive than others. Kids prefer French fries over apples. Parents do have some power of their children’s decisions.