Cartoons Help Sell Junk Food But Not Veggies

Monday, 21 June 2010 | by Pat's Picks

Apparently, Dora the Explorer can get kids to eat junk food but she’s not that good at convincing them to eat their veggies. The Chicago Tribune says researchers reaffirmed the common belief that the presence of cartoon characters on packaging can sway a child’s preferences. But what’s interesting is that when placed on a bag of carrots, the same characters had no impact on a child’s decision-making process. The results of a recent study say this is a call to ban food companies from using cartoon characters to hawk their goods.

Read an abstract of the study, published today in Pediatrics