Altering health-pleasure trade-off via advertising claims

The study investigated whether and how advertising claims (taste vs. health benefit) influenced consumer taste perception and buying intentions of potato chips. Participants (N=154) were exposed to the front of the product package and were invited to taste the product. Taste benefit claims lead to perceiving the chips as more tasty, while health benefit claims reduced the perceived level of tastefulness of the product. The buying intention was higher when the package carried taste than health benefit claims. These outcomes show that advertising claims may alter consumer health-pleasure trade-off and thus play a crucial role in buying decision