Food Marketers Rally to Avoid Kids’ Marketing Bans
Food marketers are trying to stiffen up self-regulation of kids marketing in an effort to avoid government restrictions.
Food companies, industry associations, advocacy groups and legislators met last week to discuss how marketing food to kids influences childhood obesity at the Federal Trade Commission’s workshop “Perspectives on Marketing, Self-Regulation, & Childhood Obesity.”
Industry reps praised the effectiveness of CARU, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the National Advertising Review Council, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association suggested seven ways to expand CARU’s authority over kids ads. The conversation so far has focused on advertising, but could broaden to cover all marketing.
“We need to differentiate between TV ads and other marketing strategies,” said panelist Lisa Sutherland, a research assistant professor at the University of North Carolina. “My 12-year-old is collecting bottle caps [for a promotion]; what’s the impact of that? How does it compound TV advertising?”
Representatives from top food companies including Kraft, Pepsico and McDonald’s detailed their current efforts to curb food ads directed at kids and to promote physical activity.
Food marketers argued against the need for legislation proposed by Sen. Tom Harkin (D, IA), whose Healthy Lifestyles and Prevention America Act (called the HeLP America Act) would restore authority to the FTC to prohibit marketing non-nutritious food to kids under 18.
Harkin criticized CARU as “a poster child for how not to conduct self-regulation. Time and again, it has shown itself to be a captive of the industry. It has no real independence. No sanction authority. No teeth. … CARU is a tiny group tasked with oversight of a multibillion-dollar industry. To me, the deck seems a bit stacked.”
Still, Harkin said he would review GMA’s proposal to CARU. The proposal, presented by GMA President-CEO Manly Molpus, suggests seven improvements:
- Expand CARU guidelines beyond traditional media advertising to address ads in computer games, video games and Web sites; prohibit paid product placement on children’s programming; and govern appropriate use of third-party licensed characters in advertising
- Build CARU’s resources and enforcement capacity
- Improve direct consumer access to CARU via a toll-free line and Web site
- Improve transparency with a summary of CARU’s regulatory activities posted online, including details of complaints and their resolutions
- Broaden advice to CARU from parents, educators, nutritionists, fitness experts, behavioral experts, and experts on FTC and FDA policy
- Strengthen voluntary pre-dissemination review of ads
- Build a closer working relationship between CARU and the FTC and Health and Human Services.
“We strongly believe that CARU can continue to be the standard for strong, effective, and credible self-regulation of advertising that American consumers can count on,” Molpus said. “We will re-commit ourselves to that goal and pledge our companies to providing the financial support that is required.”
Molpus also suggested that the federal government (via HHS) establish an award program recognizing companies that promote healthy lifestyles, and that the government continue funding “healthy lifestyle communication programs,” such as the HHS and Ad Council campaign “Small Steps” campaign and the CDC’s VERB program.
One consumer advocacy group suggested that restrictions should consider foods’ nutritional quality, and ads for junk food should be banned. ANA Executive VP Dan Jaffe shot the idea: “Banning marketing for certain foods would be certainly unconstitutional. There are no bad foods, just bad diets. … The marketplace is working because [food companies] are responding to consumer demands for healthful products. Restricting advertising would be counter-productive.”
