Table of Contents

Introduction

Guidelines

Guideline 1: Non-comedic Plotline Intervention for Comedy Television Shows (EELM)

Additional Guidelines & Theoretical Frameworks

Guideline 2: Biology Lecture juxtaposed with Media Images (Priming theory, Social comparison theory)

Guideline 3: Healthy Advertisements (Priming theory, Social cognitive theory, Social comparison theory)

Guideline 4: Glamorizing Averaged-Sized Models (Social comparison theory)

Guideline 5: Product Placement of Healthy Snacks in Popular Television Shows (Social cognitive theory, EELM, Social comparison theory)

Guideline 6: Healthier School Food Options (Third person effect)

Ending Notes

References

Introduction

The media deliver contradictory messages by presenting low-nutrient food advertisements with thin models (Eyal & Te’eni-Harari, 2016). The contradictory messages perpetuate unrealistic perceptions among teens about nutrition’s relationship to the ideal body image as promoted by the media, and leads many toward body dissatisfaction (Eyal & Te’eni-Harari, 2016; Halliwell, Dittmar, & Howe, 2005; Martin & Kennedy, 1993; Ogden, Smith, Nolan, Moroney, & Lynch, 2011; Tiggemann, 2003). The following guidelines outline interventions that promote the adoption of critical thinking skills among teens, and the adoption of responsible strategies among media companies, in order to combat media that advertise unhealthy nutritional habits in conjunction with unrealistic beauty standards.

Guidelines

Guideline 1: Non-comedic Plotline Intervention for Comedy Television Shows (EELM)

One guideline for the creation of health-promoting content for young people may be to partner with networks and introduce nutritional messages into non-humorous plotlines of comedy television shows.

Moyer-Gusé, Mahood, and Brookes’ (2011) study uses the extended elaboration likelihood model (EELM) to show that issue-related humor reduces the effectiveness of an entertainment-education (EE) message, or a message that inserts health education into popular programming. The EELM posits that individuals become engrossed in narratives rather than critically evaluating them. In order to gain enjoyment of the content, individuals will not be motivated to counterargue story points. The more engrossing a narrative, the less individuals will engage in counterarguing (Slater & Rouner, 2002).

The study inserts an issue-related educational intervention about unintentional pregnancy into the humorous content of the comedy television show, Scrubs, reduces counterarguing, and trivializes the severity of the consequences of the educational message about sexual behavior, especially for male viewers (Moyer-Gusé et al., 2011). In the second experimental group, however, inserting the issue-related educational intervention about unintentional pregnancy into the non-humorous content of the comedy television show Scrubs, so that jokes were made out of other plotlines but not the intervention plotline, results in no trivialization of the consequences of unintended pregnancy (Moyer-Gusé et al., 2011).

Perhaps a related educational intervention using the EELM may produce similar results for the consequences of an alternate EE message: nutritional choices. Research on other issue-related messages using the EELM and a similar methodological setup are encouraging for future research using the EELM on nutrition messages. Another study found that humorous content about social issues reduces counterarguing: an EE message about the differences between poor versus preferable nutritional choices may be effective when added to the non-humorous plotlines of a comedy television show, or into other comedic content that is popular among young people (Nabi, Moyer-Gusé, & Byrne, 2007). Specifically, it may reduce counterarguing and result in no trivialization of the consequences of poor nutritional habits as well as no trivialization of the health benefits of healthy nutritional habits.

Future research may be conducted to see whether the EELM produces similar results for additional types of educational content, beyond educational content on sex issues and social issues, such as for nutritional choices. Ideally, if the research shows similar outcomes of reduced counterarguing of the EE message and no trivialization of poor nutritional habits, policy measures could create guidelines for popular media organizations among young people (e.g. networks, youtube channels, comedy venues) to partner with academic institutions in the creation of humorous yet socially responsible media content with regard to nutrition.

Additional Guidelines & Theoretical Frameworks

A second guideline is for academic institutions to involve an intervention for adolescents run by college students about the biological effects of food nutrition and amounts. The metabolic mechanisms would be presented alongside media images of extremely thin models with varying levels of organ failure. This guideline would address body dissatisfaction.

A third guideline is for policy to prioritize food advertisements of fruits and vegetables on similar media platforms as food advertisements for low-nutrient foods.

A fourth guideline is for policy to dictate more rigorous methods of policing model BMI and image editing.

A fifth guideline is for policy to provide incentives for the media and academic institutions to collaborate on responsible product placement of fruits and vegetables in popular children’s television shows.

The guidelines, which will be discussed in more depth, are based on related interventions that use the priming, social cognitive, social cultural, and social comparison theoretical frameworks. Priming theory explains that external stimuli such as media serve as cues that may trigger thoughts, intentions, and behaviors (Berkowitz, 1986; Roskos-Ewoldsen, Roskos-Ewoldsen, & Dillman Carpentier, 2002).

Social cognitive theory claims that humans learn behaviors and norms through observation of media content (Bandura, 2001; Harris, 2004). The learning mechanism involves mediation of media messages by media personae such as television characters (Bandura, 2009; Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963).

Social cultural theory describes how ideals of what is acceptable are based on societal norms (Stormer & Thompson, 1996). The mass media are conveyors of these socio-cultural ideals because of its pervasiveness in society (Tiggemann & McGill, 2004). One of the tactics of the media in conveying socio-cultural ideals, especially within the advertising industry, is to use ultra-thin models to represent the beauty ideal under the widely accepted perceptual norm that “skinny sells” (Halliwell, Dittmar, & Howe, 2005).

Social comparison theory explains why the unrealistic beauty ideal portrayed by the media causes body dissatisfaction (Martin & Kennedy, 1993). Individuals perform upward social comparisons to those they perceive to be socially better than them. The gap between one’s current state and the ideal that one is comparing themselves to motivates individuals to perform behavioral modifications in order to progress toward the ideal (Higgins, 1987; Hesse-Biber, Leavy, Quinn, & Zoino, 2006; Posavac & Posavac, 2002). Magazine reading, whose mediated personae are ultra-thin and digitally liquified to appear thinner, positively correlates with the internalization of thin ideals (Tiggemann, 2003). Television viewing, whose mediated personae promote unhealthy food messages, influences poor nutritional choices among undergraduates (Harris & Bargh, 2009). For example, the frequency of watching pathological eating by thin tv stars positively correlates with absent-minded eating among undergraduates (Tiggemann, 2003).

Guideline 2: Biology Lecture juxtaposed with Media Images (Priming theory, Social comparison theory)

The academic intervention for guideline two would break down the metabolic and organ-related processes that occur from eating processed versus unprocessed carbohydrates, fats with high density lipoprotein (HDL) versus low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterols, and from eating extremist amounts of food such as too many or too few calories in comparison to a healthy range per body type. The intervention would juxtapose this knowledge with media strategies, whose mediated personae are ultra-thin models, so that intervention participants have the knowledge to evaluate the media more critically before internalizing its messages and performing upward social comparisons.

For example, a section on eating too few calories per week, month, or year may show the gradual process of organ failure and their symptoms while juxtaposing this with images of increasingly thin models and pro-ana figures. A section on eating processed carbohydrates may show the metabolic mechanisms of digesting and using simple sugars, such as how they result in less efficient usage of energy by the body and lead to fatigue, weight gain, and acne. This section would be juxtaposed with television ads of energized, ultra-thin, clear-faced models eating processed foods. A section on eating different types of fats may show the mechanism of how fatty foods with LDL cholesterols increase the risk of heart disease as well as other adverse effects; and show the mechanism of how fatty foods with HDL cholesterols reduce the bad (LDL) cholesterols in the body as well as other benefits. This section would be juxtaposed with media advertisements of beautiful and successful celebrities eating fatty foods high in LDL cholesterols. Through these juxtapositions, intervention leaders would educate teen audiences on how media advertisements do not correspond to how processed foods, simple sugars, and fatty foods high in LDL cholesterol act upon the body in real life.

The point of this type of intervention would be to provide greater education regarding the short- and long-term effects of nutrition, to promote healthy eating habits, and to influence a more critical approach to protect against the media, while preventing a boomerang effect. A boomerang effect is shown to occur for certain studies that show images of extremely thin models, as the models are seen by teens as healthy and successful role models instead of having potential and serious health conditions (Harrison & Hefner, 2014). Juxtaposing media images of the thin ideal with complementary biological mechanisms of organ failure may prevent a boomerang effect, but the intervention should include a follow-up interview or questionnaire after several months to test this risk factor.

A study by Eyal and Te’eni-Harari (2016) shows a contradiction in food advertisements where ultra-thin models are eating processed foods high in simple sugars and LDL cholesterol fats. The nature of food advertisements is attention-grabbing because they are emotionally charged messages about happiness and success (Eyal & Te’eni-Harari, 2016; Harris, 2004). According to priming theory, food advertisements are likely to prime unhealthy eating choices (Harris & Bargh, 2009). Such an effect may be predicted by social cognitive theory where media consumers learn behaviors and norms by observation, such as that low-nutrient foods are related to beauty, popularity, and thinness (Bandura, 2001; Bandura, 2009; Harris, 2004; López-Guimerà, Levine, Sánchez-Carracedo, & Fauquet, 2010). According to social comparison theory, media consumers may then internalize these contradictory messages and their associated societal ideals, and create upward social comparisons toward an unrealistic ideal - a scenario that would perpetuate unhealthy eating behaviors and continual body dissatisfaction (Halliwell, Dittmar, & Howe, 2005; Hesse-Biber, Leavy, Quinn, & Zoino, 2006; Higgins, 1987; Posavac & Posavac, 2002; Stormer & Thompson, 1996; Tiggemann, 2003).

Media exposure is almost impossible to avoid in today’s information age. Aside from media content displayed on traditional platforms such as billboards that are viewable by anyone, societies have become internet-oriented. The International Telecommunication Union finds that 90.3% of the developed population has access to the internet (ITU, 2016). The Pew Research Center finds that 73% of teens have access to smartphones (Lenhart, 2015). According to social cultural theory, the mass media are conveyors of socio-cultural ideals because of its pervasiveness in society (Tiggemann & McGill, 2004). Media may be difficult to avoid or restrict, so increased information among children, teens, and emerging adults about organ processes in relation to nutrition habits and body size may provide an arsenal of knowledge from which to draw and think critically from when next viewing media images of poor nutrition habits alongside the body ideal.

This proposed academic intervention for guideline two may be done in concert with or sequentially to an intervention similar to Ogden, Smith, Nolan, Moroney, and Lynch’s (2011) academic intervention study for teens that exposes a range of techniques that the media uses to promote images of unrealistic beauty standards, such as through extreme image editing. The purpose of Ogden et al.’s (2011) academic intervention is to promote the adoption of a more critical approach to protect against the media. Previous related interventions also taught how beauty images are edited heavily, and have succeeded in teaching young women to be more critical of media messages (Oliver, 2001; Ogden & Sherwood, 2008; Stormer & Thompson, 1996; Thompson & Heinberg, 1999; Yamamiya, Cash, Melnyk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005; Wade, Davidson, & O’Dea, 2003). According to social comparison theory, body dissatisfaction may only be increased through media images of the body ideal if the individual internalizes the ideal and creates favorable upward comparisons with the media images (Stormer & Thompson, 1996). A combined or sequential intervention promoting the adoption of a critical approach in teens to protect against the influence of the media, that includes education about the biological effects of unrealistic beauty standards as well as education about media strategies that promote images of unrealistic beauty standards, may affect a long-term adoption of more critical approaches toward media messages and reduce their internalization and upward social comparisons among teens.

The high school intervention would be presented by undergraduate students who are nutrition majors in their junior or senior year. Individuals are more likable if they are perceived as similar (Suedfelt, Bochner, & Matas, 1971). Knowledgeable and responsible sources are seen to have authority (Bickman, 1974). Undergraduate students are generally at an interim age between high school students and adult teachers. The undergraduate intervention educators, who are studying this field, would be seen by the adolescents both as peers and as knowledgeable authority figures. Additionally, an obedience paradigm presented by Milgram (1963) shows that individuals obey authority figures more when they are proximal and in the presence of an obedient companion. The intervention would occur in a classroom environment, which promote obedience in companion students, and would be carried out by a proximal authority figure. All factors combined may make it more likely that the adolescents undergoing the intervention may heed the intervention messages.

Guideline 3: Healthy Advertisements (Priming theory, Social cognitive theory, Social comparison theory)

Guideline three proposes that policy measures create incentives for fruit and vegetable food advertisements that would show up during television commercial breaks, in YouTube advertisements, in billboard advertisements, and in online banner and content-spot advertisements. This guideline is based on the study by Eyal and Te’eni-Harari (2016) which uses the priming, social cognitive, and social comparison theoretical frameworks to explain the effects that contradictory food advertisements, which show ultra-thin models eating low-nutrient foods, may have on viewers. Food advertisements for low-nutrient foods rely on emotional, rather than cognitive, appeals. The food advertisements are likely to prime unhealthy eating choices and are a source of social information and observational learning for viewers (Eyal & Te’eni-Harari, 2016). Their mediated personae by ultra-thin models who represent the beauty ideal increase the likelihood that viewers will engage in upward social comparisons with them, predicting body dissatisfaction and unhealthy dieting behaviors (Eyal & Te’eni-Harari, 2016).

The guideline may help counter effects of low-nutrient food advertisements by using similar physical and online spaces, as well as similar emotional appeals of success and happiness, to promote the consumption of the healthy alternatives. Social cultural theory dictates that “skinny sells,” but advertisements depicting ultra-thin and average-size models are found to be equally effective (Halliwell, Dittmar, & Howe, 2005). Mediated personae in the healthy food advertisements would be average-sized so as to decrease the chances of body dissatisfaction effects on viewers. The emotional appeals of success and happiness in concert with the fruit and vegetable advertisements may promote healthier eating choices.

Guideline 4: Glamorizing Averaged-Sized Models (Social comparison theory)

Guideline four proposes stronger policy changes that would require model agencies to employ models by an even higher BMI threshold, and would dictate minimum body thinness proportions to magazine and other media advertisements when image editing. Social cultural theory dictates that “skinny sells,” but advertisements depicting ultra-thin and average-size models are found to be equally effective (Halliwell et al., 2005). Not only this, but research has found a boomerang effect where respondents experienced increased body dissatisfaction after viewing retouched photographs that were labeled as such, and calls into question existing policy strategies to decrease consumer identification with edited media (Ata, Thompson, & Small, 2013; Harrison, & Hefner, 2004).

Promoting healthier models and realistic mediated figures in advertisements, instead of displaying edited pictures of already ultra-thin models and labeling the photographs as retouched, may be more efficient mechanisms to reduce body dissatisfaction. By glamorizing averaged-sized models on catwalks and in media advertisements, rather than glamorizing ultra-thin models, social comparison theory predicts a lower discrepancy between individuals’ ideal selves and the societal ideal, which may in turn lower body dissatisfaction (Higgins, 1987; Posavac & Posavac, 2002).

Guideline 5: Product Placement of Healthy Snacks in Popular Television Shows (Social cognitive theory, EELM, Social comparison theory)

Guideline five, involving the collaboration of media and academic sources, is similar to guideline three but would involve product placement of fruits and vegetables within popular television shows among children, adolescents, and emerging adults. Favorite actors of a similar age to the target audience would use cognitive and emotional appeals to promote the healthy food within the show plotline. Brands use emotional messages of happiness and success for food advertisements because they are attention-grabbing (Eyal & Te’eni-Harari, 2016; Harris, 2004). A study by Te’eni-Harari and Eyal (2015) based on social cognitive theory finds that adolescents more frequently self-compare with favorite television characters the thinner the characters are. This fifth guideline would mediate successful advertising techniques from low-nutrient food commercials, such as emotional appeals, with popular television characters toward whom much of the target audience would create favorable upward comparisons.

Eyal and Te’eni-Harari’s (2016) study also finds that media messages present contradictory information because extremely thin models are used in advertisements for low-nutrient foods. The mediated message of the fifth guideline is a response to such contradictions. It would promote messages of popular television characters’ success in concert with healthy eating choices. According to social cognitive theory, viewers, especially those who have characteristics similar to the popular television members, cognitively store and rehearse the nutritional messages that they see in media before deciding whether to adopt the learned behaviors and norms into their personal lives (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963; Bandura, 2001; Bandura, 2009; Harris, 2004). Adding alternative nutritional messages of high-nutrient foods into popular media provides individuals with a varied platform of information from which to learn.

Interventions among various ages and television shows popular to the respective age ranges may be created to test this guideline. Different experimental groups would watch either a television episode that included product placement of fruits and vegetables, the same television episode without the product placement, or, if ethical, the same television episode with product placement of low-nutrient food. Further experimental groups may separate the first and third experimental groups further, such as if the television show was a comedy, and the food products would be placed within humorous versus non-humorous plotlines to compare counterarguing effects. With reference to the first guideline and the extended elaboration likelihood model, if the fruit and vegetable product placements are added to the non-humorous plotlines of specifically comedic television shows, possible counterarguing of nutritional messages may be reduced.

Further research should test whether messages of success in relation to healthy food choices may produce negative consequences. Priming theory claims that food advertisements are likely to prime unhealthy eating choices (Harris & Bargh, 2009). However, this may have to do with the fact that the majority of food advertisements promote low-nutrient foods (Eyal & Te’eni-Harari, 2016). Also, the intervention advocates for product placement within television shows rather than for advertisements within commercials. Further, the study by Te’eni-Harari and Eyal (2015), which finds that adolescents more frequently self-compare with favorite television characters the thinner the characters are, also finds that the discrepancy between the adolescents’ and favorite television characters’ body sizes negatively predicts the adolescents’ body image. Ethical precautions could be taken in this fourth guideline for fruit and vegetable product placement where the favorite television shows picked for interventions include a higher percentage of average-sized actors, despite less predicted identification and social cognitive effects than if actors were extremely thin. Finally, social comparison theory claims that the frequency of watching pathological eating by thin tv stars positively correlates with absent-minded eating among undergraduates (Tiggemann, 2003). Future research must examine the effects of high-nutrient fruit and vegetable product placement with regard to adverse priming and social comparison effects on unhealthy eating habits.

A questionnaire immediately following interventions two to five, and a follow-up questionnaire several months later, may look for short- and long-term effects of the guidelines on reports of unhealthy eating behaviors and body dissatisfaction. Following the immediate and follow-up questionnaires, healthy and unhealthy snacks will be provided so that confederates may assess possible effects of the interventions, as well as differences between reported and actual behaviors, with regard to short- and long-term eating choices.

Guideline 6: Healthier School Food Options (Third person effect)

A further recommendation not for media content advises policy to require changes to school lunch and snack and vending machine options that would include more fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and unprocessed food options, while reducing low-nutrient food options.

Among some obstacles to media literacy programs have been third person effects. Media programs say that they do not need academic interventions and that professors should go elsewhere. Parents say that their kids do not need media interventions because they can handle the media. A study found that despite a third person effect in parents of pre-school aged children who felt that parents of the other children would not support healthier school birthday parties with less junk food, the majority of parents in fact supported having healthier birthday parties (Efshari Bari, 2016a; Efshari Bari, 2016b). Specifically, while parents felt alone and thought that only 48% of parents would support healthier birthday parties, 74% of parents in fact supported healthier birthday parties. Also, 92% of parents supported serving fruit at children’s birthday parties, and 67% of parents supported serving only cake or cake with a few healthier snacks (Efshari Bari, 2016a; Efshari Bari, 2016b). The Efshari Bari (2016) findings of parental support for healthier school food options show possible parental support for the sixth guideline.

Ending Notes

Other obstacles to media literacy programs include funding cuts from education, ignorance, and no inherent structural connections between the media industry and the education system. Funding cuts from education make it hard to fund the interventions and to train educators to teach about these subjects and run the interventions. Additionally, many people do not realize the importance of healthy eating choices or the negative psychological and behavioral impacts that ultra-thin models and television characters have on adolescent viewers, such as body dissatisfaction and extreme dieting and absent-minded or pathological eating. Finally, the separate education and media industries make it difficult to combine entrenched media strategies with socially responsible alternatives.

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