Influência da propaganda nos hábitos alimentares: análise de conteúdo de comerciais de alimentos da televisão
Abstract
Food advertising and it effect on the food choices has been the target of frequent debates,
being attributed to a great part of the responsibility for the problems of bad feeding of the
population. Such situation has led to government initiatives with the aim to discipline the food
advertising, mainly those destined to children. These initiatives can have important
consequences on the promotion strategies of the food sector. The present work had as main
objective to investigate the frequency and content of the food commercials on television,
considering the strategies adopted in relation to the characteristics of the message, the food,
the consumer and the appeals, as well as the execution or not of ethical norms of advertising.
Therefore, the programming of three open TV channels was recorded during the morning,
afternoon and night at preestablished schedules and then used in the content analysis. The
results pointed to the prevalence of food commercials in the morning mainly for children
advertising mostly products rich in sugar and fat. It was verified that the messages are
fundamentally affectionate, with emphasis on the flavor of the food and the pleasure with
little reference to the nutritional aspects and health. Great part of the commercials also
presented debatable elements regarding to the ethics. At the end of the work, considerations
are made about the need of the analysis of the food choice in a wider context, considering the
advertising just one of the influence variables. It is considered that only joint actions of the
public and private sector are capable to aid in the promotion of healthier food habits.