EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

How Package Design and Packaged-based Marketing Claims Lead to Overeating

Pierre Chandon

Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 2013, vol. 35, issue 1, 7-31

Abstract: Because packaging reaches consumers at the critical moments of purchase and consumption, it has become an important marketing tool for food manufacturers and retailers. In this paper, I first review how the marketing, health and nutrition claims made on packaging create 'health halos' that make foods appear healthier than they are, thereby leading to higher consumption yet lower perceived calorie intake. I then show how packaging design (cues, shapes, and sizes) biases people's perception of quantity and increases their preference for supersized packages and portions that appear smaller than they are. Finally, I examine the extent to which mandatory nutrition labels, stricter regulation of package claims, public promotion of mindful eating, and mindless eating nudges could limit the biasing effects of packaging on food perceptions and preferences. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/aepp/pps028 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:apecpp:v:35:y:2013:i:1:p:7-31

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy is currently edited by Timothy Park, Tomislav Vukina and Ian Sheldon

More articles in Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press (joanna.bergh@oup.com).

 
Page updated 2024-10-27
Handle: RePEc:oup:apecpp:v:35:y:2013:i:1:p:7-31