An interventional study of Lying about unhealthy foods being healthy and Engineering foods to be addictive in Diet Quality, Young Adult Health and Communication, sponsored by Stanford University. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 29 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-17.
Sponsored by Stanford University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
The primary objective of this study is to identify the food counter-marketing messages (i.e., messages that describe deceptive marketing tactics used by food companies) that are perceived as most effective among young adults.
Participants will complete a within-subjects, randomized experiment in which they view and rate messages describing deceptive marketing tactics used by food companies to sell unhealthy products.
Messages cover five topics: (1) lying about unhealthy products being healthy, (2) engineering foods to be addictive, (3) covering up evidence about the harms of consuming unhealthy products, (4) targeting groups, (5) piggybacking on social causes to promote products. Each topic is presented in five framing variants: an unframed version and four values-based frames that connect the message to a value (e.g., authenticity, fairness). Participants also view one control message, for a total of 26 messages (5 topics × 5 framing variants, plus 1 control).
Topic order is randomized across participants; within each topic, the five framing variants are presented consecutively in random order.
719 studies on the registry are indexed under Communication; 159 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 645 is above the median of 144 across 571 interventional studies indexed under Communication.
Browse Communication studies →Stanford University is the lead sponsor of 2,168 studies on the registry; 431 are open to participants now.
Of its 267 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 207 (78%) have results posted.
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Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Participants view 26 messages. Messages cover five counter-marketing topics: (1) lying about unhealthy products being healthy, (2) engineering foods to be addictive, (3) covering up evidence about the harms of consuming unhealthy products, (4) targeting groups, (5) piggybacking on social causes to promote products. Each topic is presented in five framing variants: an unframed version and four values-based frames that connect the message to a value (e.g., authenticity, fairness). Participants also view one control message, for a total of 26 messages (5 topics × 5 framing variants, plus 1 control). Topic order is randomized across participants; within each topic, the five framing variants are presented consecutively in random order.
Behavioral: Lying about unhealthy foods being healthy · Behavioral: Engineering foods to be addictive · Behavioral: Targeting groups · Behavioral: Piggybacking on social causes · Behavioral: Covering up the evidence about the harms of unhealthy foods · Behavioral: Control
Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies promote unhealthy foods as healthy.
Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies engineer foods to be addictive.
Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies target some groups to sell their unhealthy products.
Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies promote their unhealthy products by piggybacking on popular social causes.
Participants will view 5 messages about how food companies cover up evidence about the harms of their unhealthy products.
Participants will view 1 control message about fire safety.
Perceived message effectiveness for discouraging consumption of unhealthy foods
The study will assess perceived message effectiveness for discouraging consumption of sugary drinks and processed snacks with 1 item: "This message discourages me from wanting to consume sugary drinks and processed snacks." Response options for all items will range from "Not at all" (coded as 1) to "A great deal" (coded as 5). Higher scores indicate higher perceived message effectiveness. The survey will measure perceived message effectiveness immediately after participants are exposed to each message.
Time frame: The survey will take up to 15 minutes
Plan to share: Yes — We will post supporting information to a public repository (e.g., GitHub or similar) upon publication of manuscripts using these data.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Analytic code
Time frame: We will post supporting information upon publication of manuscripts using these data.
Access criteria: Anyone will be able to access the supporting information.
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Jan 2027; primary completion for Jan 2027, 0 months later.
Of 390 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Communication, half reached primary completion within 18 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 6 and three quarters within 36. This study's planned 0 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 394 studies reached it within 18 months; a quarter within 6 and three quarters within 36.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Aug 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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