If your kids are overweight, there are people who say that the food companies and their advertising are (at least in part) to blame. Some have even argued that the government should restrict, or even ban, the marketing of food to children. Childhood obesity has become a serious public health problem in the United States. According to one estimate, sixteen percent of kids ages six to nineteen are obese.
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) recently issued a report, “Perspectives on Marketing, Self-Regulation & Childhood Obesity,” which examined the marketing of food to children and made some initial recommendations on how industry can help solve the obesity problem. The FTC and HHS aren’t at this point proposing new rules to restrict the marketing of food to kids, but that all could change if the industry doesn’t take their recommendations seriously and start making real changes soon.
Much of the FTC/HHS report focused on the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (“CARU”) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which is the nation’s leading self-regulatory body dealing with children’s advertising. The report looked at how well CARU has dealt with these issues in the past, and what it needs to do to be more effective in the future. “For self-regulation to be effective,” according to the report, “it should clearly address the problems it seeks to remedy, adjust to new developments within the industry, be enforced and widely followed by industry members, and be visible and accessible to the public.”
The food industry spent between ten and twelve billion dollars in 2002 to market food to children, according to the FTC/HHS report. Food marketers have not just relied on just television and print advertising. The report noted that they use many non-traditional means as well, such as promotions, product placements, branded advergaming, licensing of popular children’s characters, and tie-ins with entertainment properties. For example, the report noted that Mattel sells a doll dressed in a McDonald’s uniform, and Kraft sells macaroni and cheese in the shape of popular children’s characters, such as the Flintstones, Bugs Bunny, and SpongeBob SquarePants.
The FTC and HHS acknowledged that the industry is already taking steps to address the childhood obesity problem, but asks whether these industry efforts go far enough. So what do they want you to start thinking about — in order to avoid new, more restrictive regulation in the future? Here are some of the report’s key recommendations:
Food companies should review their marketing practices to improve the overall nutritional profile of the products they market to children. This may include adopting minimum nutritional standards for food marketed to kids and standards that focus their marketing on more nutritious foods.
Media and entertainment companies should review their practices to encourage the licensing of children’s television and movie characters for use with more nutritious foods.
CARU should consider revising its marketing guidelines to address new forms of advertising and should consider adopting minimum standards for foods that are marketed to kids and standards that shift marketing efforts to more nutritious foods. CARU should also consider to what extent paid product placement of food in non-traditional advertising, such as movies, video games, and websites, is appropriate.
The health problems are very real. Although people can disagree on what level of responsibility the food companies should have for childhood obesity, it’s clear that both consumers and government are looking to marketers to provide some of the solutions. If you’re creating food advertising, this is the time to take a step back and consider some of these weighty issues, or you may just find yourself weighed down with a lot of new regulation in the future.
This column presents a general discussion of legal issues, but is not legal advice, and may not be applicable in all situations. Consult your attorney for legal advice.
Jeffrey A. Greenbaum ESQ. is a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, New York. If you have a suggestion for a topic to be covered in a future column, send an e-mail to jagreenbaum@fkks.com
