To understand the rising prevalence of childhood obesity in affluent societies, it is necessary to take into account the growing obesity infrastructure, which over past decades has developed into an obesogenic environment. This study examines the effects of one of the constituent factors of consumer societies and a potential contributory factor to childhood obesity: commercial food communication targeted to children. Specifically, it investigates the impact of TV advertising on children’s food knowledge and food preferences and correlates these findings with their weight status. Evaluations of traditional information- and education-based interventions suggest that they may not sustainably change food patterns. Based on prior consumer research, we propose five hypotheses, which we then test using a subsample from the IDEFICS study, a large-scale pan-European intervention study on childhood obesity. The results indicate that advertising has divergent effects on children’s food knowledge and preferences and that food knowledge is unrelated to food preferences. This finding has important implications for both future research and public policy. 1. Background and Aim of the Study In consumer societies, modern diets based on unhealthy fast foods, convenience foods, energy dense snacks, and soft drinks, the abundance and omnipresence of food, and sedentary lifestyles and electronic recreation that minimises physical activity have led to serious weight control problems. A particularly severe trend impacting future health levels are the high, and in most countries still rising, levels of overweight and obesity in infants and children [1]. According to statistics provided by the World Health Organization [2], the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [3], and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) (http://www.iaso.org/iotf/obesity/), the problem is increasing and steadily affecting many low- and middle-income countries. Globally, the number of overweight children under the age of five was estimated in 2010 to be over 42 million; close to 35 million of them living in developing countries. About 60% of children who are overweight before puberty will be overweight in early adulthood [4]. On an individual level, childhood obesity is strongly associated with risk factors for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, underachievement in school, and lower self-esteem. On a social level, it jeopardises societies’ sustainability through the erosion of social cohesion, equity, and fairness. In the developed world, obesity is closely connected with low
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