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  Companies are constantly bombarding children with ads and marketing strategies that aim to make them desire their products.  In order to create this desire, companies use techniques such as putting fun and familiar characters on their products to attract the child to the brand.  Most grocery stores put these character-stamped products at child's eye-level in the grocery store, assuring that kids will see it, want it, and nag mom until they get it.  Although a majority of these marketed foods are unhealthy, mom's desire to make her child stop whining is usually enough to get these products from the shelves at the store to the shelves at home.  


  On this website you will find a research paper about the marketing of unhealthy foods to children and the effects said marketing can have.  Additionally, I conducted a survey to see if this character-based marketing is something that affects people through their adulthood.


  I sent this online survey out through my Facebook status, asking all 900 of my friends to take a moment to fill out a short survey for me.  This focus group represents middle to upper class adults in Georgia, ages 18-25 who own computers and have been high-school educated.  Of the 900, 54 people responded to the survey.    


  The survey consists of 6 pictures, featuring 3 brands (Kraft macaroni and cheese, Yoplait Go-gurt, and Nabisco Cheese Nips).  Each set of pictures has a product with and without endorsement by a character. I asked the respondents to state whether they are more likely to buy the normally packaged product or the character-endorsed product.