Both regulatory agencies and nonprofit organizations seek to understand how different tactics and appeals contained in food and public health advertisements might influence the food intake of an increasingly dieting-concerned population. This article addresses this important issue by examining how consumers who are concerned with their diets react to rich images of unhealthy food consumption. Results of two experiments show that exposure to food advertisements containing unhealthy food consumption imagery reduces food intake among consumers chronically concerned with dieting, whereas a third experiment shows a similar decrease in intended consumption when a public health advertisement portrays the consumption of unhealthy food. These findings in turn offer guidelines for maximizing the effectiveness of messages that attempt to promote healthy eating habits. Additionally, this research provides theoretical contributions to the self-control and mental imagery research domains which have public policy implications for regulatory agencies and nonprofit organizations.

监管机构和非营利组织都试图了解食品和公共卫生广告中包含的不同策略和呼吁如何影响日益节食的人群的食物摄入。本文通过研究关注饮食的消费者对不健康食品消费的丰富印象如何做出反应来解决这个重要问题。两项实验的结果表明，接触包含不健康食品消费意象的食品广告会减少长期与节食有关的消费者的食物摄入量，而第三个实验表明，当公共卫生广告描述不健康食品的消费时，预期消费量也有类似的下降。这些发现反过来又为最大程度地提高试图养成健康饮食习惯的信息的有效性提供了指导。此外，这项研究为自我控制和心理图像研究领域提供了理论贡献，这些领域对监管机构和非营利组织具有公共政策意义。