Kids and kids at heart have always loved playing video games, and these days, more and more food companies are starting to catch on to it. Aside from their usual ad campaigns, they now use online games to introduce kids to their newest products. These advergames are nothing to scoff at. In a study led by Jennifer Harris, director of Marketing Inititatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, researchers found out that advergames can influence your children’s food choices.

To see just how widespread advergames are, researchers conducted a two-part study that was published in the Journal of Children and Media. In the first part of the study, they tallied how many children visited company websites with advergames and how long they stayed there. Starting with companies that have pledged to steer advertising toward healthier options under the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, the researchers found out that about 1.2 million kids visit websites with advergames per month. They were also 77 percent more likely to visit such websites compared to others with no advergames.

The second part of the study was more direct in measuring the influence of advergames. Researchers chose two games advertising unhealthy foods, two games featuring healthy foods, and two control games which had no featured foods. They then recruited 152 children between ages 7 and 12 and randomly assigned them to play two games with a snack break in between. The snack bar provided a mix of healthy and unhealthy options.

Results revealed that youngsters who played the healthy games ate as much junk food as those who played the unhealthy games--yet they did consume 50 percent more of the healthy snacks provided. Meanwhile, those who played the games featuring unhealthy food ate 56 percent more unhealthy foods than those who played the healthy games and 16 percent more than those who played the control games.

Obviously, these large food companies have truly researched their market. In order to counter this, parents must double their efforts to help children choose healthier options. You can start with something as simple as serving a more colorful but still-healthy plate; previous research shows kids find this appetizing!

For more on kids and food, check these out on FN:

• Get Your Kids to Eat with a More Colorful Plate
• Say Goodbye to Picky Eaters! Get Your Kids to Help in the Kitchen
• Family Fun: Recipes Your Kids Can Make

(Photo by LstCaress via Flickr Creative Commons)