A Spoonful of Salt Helps the Vegetables Go Down: Exploring the Processing of Health and Nutrition-related Claims in Advertising

In light of recent persuasive appeals which promote a food product's health or nutritional benefits in advertisements, this exploratory study investigates the ways in which individuals read and understand health and nutrition-related claims in advertising and make subsequent judgments about the product, brand, and purchase intentions. Using the Elaboration-Likelihood model of persuasion, this study looks at how motivational (e.g., health consciousness, need for cognition) and ability (nutrition knowledge) factors influence attitudes toward three food products following exposure to manipulated advertisements containing a nutrition-related claim. Although the results do not demonstrate much support for the predicted relationships, the findings nonetheless provide researchers useful information that may benefit future studies.