Accomplishments

Communication PhD student wins another research paper honour

A research paper by Benjamin Cheng (PhD in Communication, Year 3) entitled “Regulatory fit effects on children’s responses to healthy eating promotion: An experiment testing message and celebrity fit” was chosen as the Top Three Best Student Paper at the International Conference on Research in Advertising held in late June in Zagreb, Croatia. This is the second time that Benjamin has won honour for a research paper.

The study adopted the regulatory fit theory to examine the effectiveness of promoting healthy eating among children by matching the image of a celebrity and the frame of a message. The result of the experiment with 87 children aged 11 to 16 showed that a fit between the celebrity’s image and message frame yielded a better affective response. Specifically, children found a poster advertisement more convincing, liked it more, held more positive feelings and found it more interesting when there was a fit between the celebrity’s image and the message frame. The result of the study provides health care organisations with insights into a more effective health promotion strategy.

Benjamin said: “Childhood obesity and the overweight problem is a global issue. Scholars and promoters of children’s health are looking for solutions to alleviate the problem. I am honoured that my academic work received recognition from this prestigious international advertising organisation. I hope my research would contribute to the promotion of healthy eating among children. I would like to thank Professor Kara Chan, Head of the Department of Communication Studies, for supervising me in writing the paper. Not only did I learn the skills of conducting research from her but also the commitment to promoting a healthy lifestyle among children.”

The international conference, organised by the European Advertising Academy, attracted participants from 23 countries and regions around the world with a presentation of 85 papers.

	Benjamin Cheng’s research paper was chosen as “Top Three Best Student Paper”