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Pitching Junk to Kids

WASHINGTON -- "Mommy, I want it!"

Fast-food and snack companies, knowing the power of such pleas, doubled the amount spent on pitching their products to kids over the last decade, a consumer advocacy group says.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, in a study released Monday, said U.S. businesses last year spent $15 billion marketing and advertising goods and services to children ages 12 and under. More than half the total went to advertise or promote food, most of it high in fat and sugar. The Washington group linked these ads to the growing problem of childhood obesity and urged Congress to enact laws curbing marketing to kids.

"Children are the target of intense and direct food marketing and advertising efforts," said Mary Story, professor of public health and nutrition at the University of Minnesota.

While the choice to buy a product is in the hands of an adult, "marketers know the nag factor and pester power," Ms. Story said.

The center, sometimes derided as the "Food Police," said that in commercials during Saturday morning cartoons, more than 50% of advertised foods fell into the fats, oils and sweets category of the Agriculture Department's food pyramid, the government's guide to a proper diet. Such foods should be "used sparingly," according to the agency's Web site.

The center is calling for Congress to give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to limit advertising for foods that don't meet certain nutrition standards. In addition, the group asks Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to examine the food marketing in his national, antiobesity effort, and proposes that federal and state governments fund nutrition campaigns.

Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers, a trade group based in New York, said any ban on the advertising of nonnutritious food, such as has been imposed in some European countries, would be unconstitutional.

"There is certainly nothing in the constitution that says government should protect parents from being pestered by children by censoring speech," Mr. Jaffe said.

Aside from slick commercials on TV, marketers use games, athletes and academic programs to capture children's attention and help them influence parents, according to the center's report.

New York Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi, for example, can be found on the Pepsi's Web site extolling the soft drink. "I usually have several Pepsi's each day," he says. "It lifts me up."

PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, N.Y., defends the promotion. Mr. Giambi "is living proof that soft drinks can be a part of a healthy, active lifestyle," said Tod MacKenzie, a PepsiCo spokesman.

Besides athletic endorsements, the center found other creative "tie-ins" used to sell junk food. In the Oreo Adventure game on Kraft Foods' Nabiscoworld.com Web site, children's "health" is reset 100% when kids acquire golden cookie jars on a journey to a Temple of the Golden Oreo.

"We think marketing to younger audiences can be appropriate if it's done responsibly, says Nancy Daigler, a spokeswoman for Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill. She said Kraft recently launched a global antiobesity effort, which includes shrinking portion sizes and improving the nutritional content of some Kraft products.

Some products combine marketing with academics. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., Winston-Salem, N.C., offers a program in which elementary-school children earn a doughnut for each "A" on their report cards, the report says.

Other critics note that schools themselves may be part of the problem because they have welcomed snack-food vending machines onto their property and get a percentage of sales.

Some national moves have already been made to promote childhood nutrition. A Senate bill, called the Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act, would allow cities and schools to get federal grants to pay for nutrition classes and promote fitness.

Some states and cities have proposed or enacted laws banning vending machines in schools. Arkansas now requires that schools send home "obesity ratings" on every student in order to promote awareness about children's weight.



— Sara Schaefer MUŅOZ
Nagging Issue: Pitching Junk to Kids
Wall Street Journal
2003-11-11
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106848017690447200,00.html

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