|
Help End Junk-Food Marketing to Children
Urge the CEOs of Viacom’s Nickelodeon and Kellogg to stop marketing junk food to young children.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), along with concerned parents and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, filed a notice of intent to sue Nickelodeon and Kellogg. The goal of the lawsuit is to improve the two companies’ marketing practices, and encourage the entire food industry to recognize its share of the responsibility regarding children’s diets and health. The basis of the suit is that the companies engage in practices that are both unfair and deceptive with respect to the marketing of foods of poor nutritional quality to children (under 8 years old).
Overall, parental authority is undermined by wide discrepancies between what parents tell their children is healthful to eat and what companies promote as desirable to eat.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Please Stop Marketing Junk Food to Young Children
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I urge you to stop marketing junk food to young children. As you know, the National Academies' Institute of Medicine recently concluded that food advertising affects children's food choices, food purchase requests, diets, and health. The main problem is that the overwhelming majority of the food products marketed to kids are of poor nutritional quality (too high in saturated or trans fat, sodium, sugars, or calories, and/or too low in nutrients).
In their attempts to feed their children well, parents have a hard time competing with food manufacturers and fast-food restaurants. Parents can model and encourage healthy eating, but companies have skills, market research, cartoon characters, and aggressive, sophisticated marketing techniques to help them get into children's heads, manipulate their food choices, and prompt them to pester their parents to purchase products.
Overall, parental authority is undermined by wide discrepancies between what parents tell their children is healthful to eat and what food companies promote as desirable to eat.
I recognize that reducing junk-food marketing aimed at young children is not the sole answer to improving children's diets. Children's diets are also affected by families, what their friends eat, and what foods are available from everywhere from schools to amusement parks. As a nation facing an obesity crisis we all need to do a lot more to improve children's diets and health. I urge you to do your share by being more responsible in how you market food to children.
Sincerely,
|
Campaign Launched:
January 18, 2006
|
Food companies have had 30 years to change their marketing policies but haven’t
- Consumer advocacy organizations (like CSPI) have been working to reduce junk-food marketing to kids for 30 years. In the late 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made plans to limit marketing to children. However, the food, advertising, broadcasting, and toy industries pulled out all the stops, and succeeded in getting their allies in Congress to stop the FTC. As a result, the FTC now has less power to regulate advertising aimed at children than for advertising aimed at adults.
- Industry has had 30 years to clean up its act but instead, junk-food marketing has gotten worse. The FTC and Congress could be, but aren’t, protecting families. In fact, last year, FTC chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras reassured industry that “a government ban on children’s food advertising is neither wise nor viable.” Since we can’t count on Congress or the executive branch, that leaves us with the courts.
- A few companies are making modest improvements to the nutritional quality of their products, and Kraft Foods, Disney and Sesame Street Workshop have improved their advertising and marketing policies. We applaud those actions, but they are still the exception rather than the industry norm, are too small, too few, and are unlikely to last once public pressure lets up.
- Industry touts its voluntary self-regulation through the Children’s Advertising Review Unit – or CARU – of the Council for Better Business Bureaus. However, CARU’s guidelines regarding nutrition are weak and outdated. All you have to do is walk down the aisle of any supermarket or watch an hour of Nickelodeon to see that CARU has failed to protect children from junk-food marketing.
- Nickelodeon is the most-watched children’s television station. Kellogg is one of the top food marketers to kids.
- Litigation has proven itself to be an important tool in other areas of public health, such as tobacco control, injury prevention, and protecting the environment.
Food marketing negatively affects children’s diets and health
- Food marketing works: A very comprehensive review of the literature by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine recently concluded that food advertising affects children’s food choices, food purchase requests, diets, and health.
- The food industry invests tremendous resources in marking food to children – about $10 billion per year. Food is marketed to kids through TV ads, cartoon characters on food packages, contests, toy give-aways, games, just-for-kids magazines, advergames on the Internet, and clothes and other kid-oriented merchandise with brand logos.
- The main problem is that the overwhelming majority of the food products marketed to kids are of poor nutritional quality (too high in saturated or trans fat, sodium, sugars, or calories, and/or too low in nutrients).
- A recent survey of the ads on the Nickelodeon channel showed that 88% were for foods of poor nutritional quality.
- Of the food products that had a Nick character on the package, 60% were of poor nutritional quality.
- 98% of the Kellogg products advertised on Saturday morning TV were of poor nutritional quality.
- Of the Kellogg food products with on-package marketing aimed at kids, 84% were of poor nutritional quality.
|
