Consumer response to commodity-specific and broad-based promotion programs for fruits and vegetables

Generic promotion activities have traditionally been used for individual agricultural commodities, yet there is renewed interest in implementing a mandatory "broad-based" promotion program for all fruits and vegetables. Here we use data from an experiment that introduce subjects to various promotional efforts for fruits and vegetables to estimate the shift and rotational effects of advertising. Econometric results indicate that commodity-specific promotional efforts may not be effective at increasing demand for fruits and vegetables. After controlling for various demographic differences among treatments, our results show that consumers' valuation of fruits and vegetables was highest among subjects exposed to broad-based advertisements.