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Breaking Down The Stereotypes In Advertising Of Healthy Foods: Can Overweight Endorsers Be Equally Effective?, Polymeros Chrysochou, Georgios Nikolakis

Polymeros Chrysochou

This paper investigates endorsers’ effectiveness in advertisements of foods. More specifically, it tests whether endorsers’ body image in print advertisements influences consumers’ attitudes and purchase intention toward healthy foods. An online study was conducted during which endorsers’ body image (normal weight vs. overweight) and food type (healthy vs. unhealthy) were experimentally manipulated in print advertisements. Results show that normal weight endorsers are more effective than overweight ones irrespective of whether the food is healthy or not. However, when controlling for participants’ body weight (obese vs. normal weight), overweight endorsers were found to be more effective than normal weight ones among …