The Taste of Branding

Did you know that carrots don’t taste like carrots. I mean, of course carrots have a taste, but the precise nature of the taste - urghh or uhmmm - is not in the carrot. It’s in the bag, package, design, placement, wrapping… In the brand.

A recent article, 'Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children's Taste Preferences', demonstrates that children's experience of food taste is influenced by their perception of the wrapping and packaging the food come in. The children in the study reported burgers, chips and CARROTS to be more tasty when they came in McDonald wrapping compared to when they came in neutral white wrapping. The presence of McDonald wrapping simply intensified the preference for the food products.

What is the lesson of this observation?

Some have used the results as a vehicle to further ground the call for more regulation on food marketing. Clearly, the results can push that call, because they make clear that good branding of bad products has a measurable impact on childrens food preferences. They raise.

On second thoughts, however, the results do not unequivocally point to that interpretation. Since food branding impacts on food taste preference regardless of the specific product type in question, food branding is a powerful tool to raise preferences for healthy products as well.

We have to choose between two interpretations. One, that calls for more regulation. Another, that calls for encouragement.

If we choose to argue in favor of more regulation, we may stop branding of junk food. This is good to the extent that we protect children against some harm. But, on the other side, we have not done much to raise the preference for healthy living and healthy eating. And we have such a desperate need to do that. Banning all marketing for junk food will not stop the obesity epidemic. It will not stop until the social norms surrounding healthy living has changed significantly. And the food industry is one of the most important strategic partners in the efforts to reinforce the social and cultural norms governing our health behavior.

Thus, if we choose to use such results to encourage industry to brand carrots, skimmed-milk and apples, we might very well raise children's preferences for these products and thereby push public health in the right direction. If we choose to reinforce the call for more regulation, the corporate interest in turning healthy living into something attractive is not likely to be very strong.

Robinson, T.N., Borzekowski, D.L.G., Matheson, D.M. et al., 2007, 'Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children's Taste Preferences', Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, 161:792-797.