Food companies' sponsorship of children's sports encourages children to buy their products, Canadian research suggests held in Venice 12–15 May, has found that food companies' sponsorship of children's sports may encourage children to buy their products. The Canadian research also found that many children view food companies that sponsor or give money to children's sports as being"generous" or"cool.
"Despite this, few studies have looked at the impact of sponsorship of children's sports. We wanted to examine the association between children's exposure to sponsorship-related food marketing and their perception of companies and their desire to purchase their products. Those who reported playing on a sports team outside of school in the last year were asked whether they had been exposed to five types of sponsorship-related food marketing in this setting: branded awards; branded uniforms, equipment or other items provided by their teams; signs; free food; coupons/gift certificates.
The children were also asked if they agreed with a range of statements about the sponsorship of children's sports byMost of the children agreed that food companies sponsor or give money to children's sports teams to help them out or to encourage people to buy their products . Some 58% of the children agreed that they would want to buy a product from a food company if they sponsored or gave money to their sports team. Those who said they were exposed to branded prizes and uniforms/equipment and received free food and coupons/gift certificates were 1.6 to 1.8 times more likely to agree with this statement.