Urge Nickelodeon/ Viacom to Stop Marketing Junk Food to Children

The vast majority – 79% – of food ads, products, and meals marketed to children by Nickelodeon/Viacom are too high in fats, salt, and/or sugars.  This figure is only a tiny improvement over our 2005 study, when 88% of foods marketed by Nickelodeon were of poor nutritional quality. 

Even though 15 food companies have set nutrition standards for which foods they will and will not market to children (on television, print, radio, the Internet, and in elementary schools) and several media companies have announced their own nutrition standards for the use of their characters, Nickelodeon has not developed its own nutrition standards.  Instead of leading the industry, Viacom has taken a back seat.

As the number-one provider of entertainment for children, Nickelodeon's marketing undermines parental efforts to feed their children a healthful diet. There are wide discrepancies between what foods parents tell their children are healthful and what Nickelodeon markets as desirable.  In their attempts to feed their children healthfully, many parents find it difficult to compete with Nickelodeon's state-of-the-art market research, music, animation, and appealing characters such as Sponge-Bob SquarePants and Shrek.  Viacom should establish strong nutrition standards and apply them to its full range of marketing to children.

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