VIOLENCE, CONFLICT, TRICKERY, AND OTHER STORY THEMES IN TV ADS FOR FOOD FOR CHILDREN

Stories in a sample of 92 television (TV) food ads aimed at children w ere analyzed for thematic and subtextual content. Violence as a surfac e theme ranked first in use receiving a nonzero score in 62% of the ad s, followed by conflict (41%), achievement (24%), mood alteration (23% ), enablement (18%), trickery (20%), and product dependence (8%). Clus ter analysis identified six groupings of themes, with 64% of the ads c haracterized by some combination of violence, conflict, and trickery. Regarding subtexts, the computer-based Minnesota Contextual Content An alysis program evaluated the voiced material in ads in terms of four m arker categories named ''traditional (normative),'' ''practical,'' ''e motional,'' and ''analytic.'' It was found that the texts had a strong emphasis on the emotional subtext or thrust, and a pronounced underem phasis on the analytic context. These analyses identify possibly dubio us content in a significant segment of children's TV viewing.