This study was conducted in order to assess the link between exposure to television advertising for snack foods and children's actual snack choices. One hundred and forty 5-to 8-year-old low income children attending summer camp were randomly divided into two experimental groups each of which contained equal numbers of younger and older children. All children viewed a half hour videotaped cartoon program each day for a period of two weeks. One group of children viewed 4 1/2 minutes of fruit commercials during the half-hour program while the other group viewed 4 1/2 minutes of candy commercials during the program. The children's snack selections from among a carefully structured set of candy and fruit options were recorded each day. Results indicated that after two weeks of viewing fruit commercials, as exposed to candy commercials, the children chose more fruit than candy for afternoon snack at a summer camp. A second study, with twenty-six 8 to 10-year-old boys was conducted to assess whether TV exposure to fruit or candy affects the frame of reference children have when assessing food choices. Results suggest that making fruit more salient through TV exposure seemed to broaden the children's frame of reference. With fruit as a salient anchor, children were more likely to categorize candy bars together and see them as similar. This study suggests that given a sensitive enough dependent measure one can detect a TV induced shift in children's inclination to use nutrition as at least one dimension for snack selection. (Author/MP)