Violence, Conflict, Trickery, and Other Story Themes in TV Ads for Food for Children

Abstract

Stories in a sample of 92 television (TV) food ads aimed at children were analyzed for thematic and subtextual content. Violence as a surface theme ranked first in use receiving a nonzero score in 62% of the ads, followed by conflict (41%), achievement (24%), mood alteration (23%), enablement (18%), trickery (20%), and product dependence (8%). Cluster analysis identified six groupings of themes, with 64% of the ads characterized by some combination of violence, conflict, and trickery. Regarding subtexts, the computer‐based Minnesota Contextual Content Analysis program evaluated the voiced material in ads in terms of four marker categories named “traditional (normative)”, “practical”, “emotional”, and “analytic”. It was found that the texts had a strong emphasis on the emotional subtext or thrust, and a pronounced underemphasis on the analytic context. These analyses identify possibly dubious content in a significant segment of children's TV viewing.