Health and Nutrition Messages in the Baby Food Advertisements of Women's Magazines

Content analysis of food advertisements was undertaken to investigate the nature of the messages related to health, nutrition or consumer-promotion in 2001 women's magazines. Advertisements on baby foods were collected from three women's magazines and the final samples obtained were 42 different copies of advertisements. All the messages in each sample were counted and calculated for their frequency (％). Messages were categorized into four areas (health, nutrition, non-nutrition, consumer promotion), and each area was classified into more detailed categories. Results showed that all the messages in 42 samples and average messages per advertisement were 1288 and 30.7, respectively. The most common type of promotional messages was health related (e.g., appeal to enhanced immune function and disease prevention and brain development), followed by consumer related, nutrition and non-nutrition messages in order. Messages about high quality and all natural ingredients were more emphasized in the consumer related category. Messages on fats (DHA, lecithin and arachidonic acid), proteins (neucleotides, taurine) and mineral (calcium, iron) were most frequently found in nutrition category. Amongst the three kinds of baby foods, formula ads had the most numerous messages related to health and nutrition. There were more consumer related messages in the ads of weaning foods, and more promotional messages about no addition of antiseptic, artificial additives, and food colors in the ads for older infant foods. Messages violating regulation (e.g., exaggerated or inaccurate or non-scientific messages) were frequently found in the advertisements of three kinds of baby foods. In conclusion, tighter supervision of food advertisements and nutrition education is required to protect the consumers from misleading advertisements.