Ramanisblog

Category: Advertising

  • U.S. agencies want to ban some kid food ads

    Long over due and welcome move.Please read my blog on Advertising.
    WASHINGTON
    Tue Dec 15, 2009 5:39pm EST
    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a bid to tackle rising youth obesity, U.S. companies would be prohibited from advertising to children foods that contain large amounts of sugar or salt, or even low levels of trans fats, under a proposal released on Tuesday by a working group from several U.S. agencies.

    The working group made up of members of the Food and Drug Administration, Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Centers for Disease Control issued what it called tentative proposed standards for food marketed to children, defined as up to age 17.

    Those foods could not have more than 1 gram of saturated fat per serving, 13 grams of added sugar, 200 milligrams of sodium or 0 trans fats, which they defined as more than half a gram, per normal serving.

    At a related conference to discuss food advertising and any link it might have to obesity among children, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, said that if the obesity-related health risks — high blood pressure and diabetes among them — were caused by radiation “alarm bells would be going off across America. There would be a huge outcry.”

    Sebelius, who also admitted to a weakness for Cheetos, said that it was important for any changes in advertising rules to be across the board so that companies that eliminate child-oriented ads for unhealthy foods were not punished for it.

    “We need to start doing a better job of regulating the types of ads our children see,” she added.

    Some food manufacturers have already reformulated some kid favorites to take health concerns into account. Kellogg, which makes Froot Loops, and General Mills, maker of Cocoa Puffs, have both said they would reduce the amount of sugar in some food advertised to children.

    The chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, noted these and other steps forward.

    “These changes have come in small increments,” said Leibowitz. “Put simply, it is time for industry to supersize its efforts.”

    Dan Jaffe, executive vice president for government relations at the Association of National Advertisers, argued that advertisers were not to blame for the growing number of fat children and any restrictions on ads could run afoul of the First Amendment.

    “The advertising community faces a real clear and growing threat of censorship,” he said.

    (Reporting by Diane Bartz, editing by Matthew Lewis)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BE5BO20091215?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100

  • Junk food reigns in ads on Web sites for kids

    Junk food manufacturers must remember that they also have kids.Money earned by spoiling children’s ( for that matter any one’s) health is Sin Money.
    True, parents can not monitor mouse click of children.Solution lies with the Government, which could block this ads or penalize the companies, journalists/media and most importantly with the manufacturers with a conscience.

    Amy Norton
    Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:40am EST
    NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Advertisements for junk food may be cluttering many of the Web sites most popular with children, a new study suggests.

    When researchers examined 28 of the Web sites most frequented by children, they found that the majority of food products advertised there met experts’ criteria for “foods to avoid.”

    Ads for sugar-laden cereals, candy, soda or fast food populated a majority of the Web sites, which included sites one would not readily associate with food, like those run by Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network, among others, noted Dr. Lori Dorfman, director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group in California and one of the researchers on the study.

    In contrast, of the 77 advertised products across all the Web sites, only five were foods that children should be encouraged to consume, the researchers report in the American Journal of Public Health.

    Cartoon Network declined to comment on the study, and calls to Nickelodeon were not immediately returned. But a spokesperson for PBS Kids — cited for having “fast food brands represented” on its Web site — said that its representation in the study is “misleading.”

    PBS Kids does not accept advertising, and “it does not market food products to children,” said Lesli Rotenberg, senior vice-president of children’s media.

    Instead, the site carries, at the bottom of some pages, the logos of various PBS sponsors — which include fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A. “Children will never see an image of a food product,” Rotenberg said.

    She also noted that PBS Kids has Web pages — Fizzy’s Lunch Lab and Don’t Buy It — designed to teach kids about healthy eating and avoiding media influences, respectively.

    When it comes to the issue of media influences on children, TV ads have long been under fire for marketing junk food to children and teenagers.

    But the Internet has provided a whole new outlet for advertisers — and companies are expected to keep increasing the proportion of their spending devoted to online marketing, according to Dorfman’s team.

    “The public health implications are serious,” Dorfman told Reuters Health in an email, “because digital marketing such as what we found on Web sites popular with kids is much different than TV advertising, which caused the alarm in the first place.”

    “Digital marketing,” she argued, “is immersive, interactive and incessant — rather than 30 seconds watching a TV commercial, children are spending 20 minutes deeply engaged with the brand.”

    A recent study found that food manufacturers’ use of “advergames” — online games that companies use to boost traffic to their Web sites and promote their brands — may indeed influence kids’ eating choices.

    When researchers had children play advergames that focused on cookies and chips, the kids wanted those same foods afterward. But when the games featured fruit and orange juice, the children tended to want those foods for a post-game snack.

    For the current study, Dorfman and her colleagues assessed the nutritional quality of foods and beverages advertised on the 28 top children’s Web sites between July and August of 2007.

    Of the 77 products they found, 49 met the “foods to avoid” criteria set by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an advisory body to the federal government. Another 23 products fell into the neutral category because they were neither junk foods nor nutritious enough to be encouraged; such products included lower-sugar cereals and certain baked snack foods.

    Only five of the advertised products — including oatmeal, milk and pure fruit juice — were foods that the IOM encourages children to eat.

    “Parents should be concerned because much digital marketing flies under their radar,” Dorfman said.

    But she also asserted that parents should not be given the job of monitoring the ads their kids see online.

    “The online environment is not like watching TV, something a family might do together,” Dorfman said. “It’s unreasonable, and unfair,” she added, “to think that parents could monitor every mouse click children make.”

    Instead, Dorfman argued, “food marketers and children’s media companies need to adhere to higher nutrition standards for the foods they market to children, especially when they do it out of earshot of parents.”

    SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, November 2009.

  • Food Ads on Nickelodeon Slammed in Report-ABC News.

    Very true.In India many of the products advertised assume moral overtones-Those who use a particular brand of tooth paste do not lie;Uni Lever advertisement declares their Lifebuoy plus protects you completely from Swine flu!
    CSPI Says, Nearly 80 Percent of Food Ads on the Popular Children’s Network Advertise Food of Poor Nutritional Quality
    (CBS) Nickelodeon may be a kid-friendly network, but when it comes to nutrition they are serving up the wrong ads.

    According to an analysis conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), “nearly 80 percent of food ads on the popular children’s network Nickelodeon are for foods of poor nutritional quality.”

    During an obesity epidemic in the United States, it’s hard enough for parents to control what their children are eating – and the group says airing a lot of junk food ads on Nickelodeon doesn’t help.

    Although the findings show a modest drop from about 90 percent in 2005, it’s not significant enough to make a dent.

    The CSPI points out that between the 2005 and 2009 studies, the food industry instituted a self-regulatory program through the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI).

    But for junk food lovers, self-regulation doesn’t always work.

    CSPI took a closer look at the practices of the food companies that participate in that self-regulatory program.

    They found that “of the 452 foods and beverages that companies say are acceptable to market to children, that 267, (or nearly 60 percent), do not meet CSPI’s recommended nutrition standards for food marketing to children.”
    The list includes: General Mills’ Cookie Crisp and Reese’s Puffs cereals, Kellogg Apple Jacks and Cocoa Krispies cereals, Kellogg Rice Krispies Treats, Campbell’s Goldfish crackers and SpaghettiOs, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, and many Unilever Popsicles.
    “While industry self-regulation is providing some useful benchmarks, it’s clearly not shielding children from junk food advertising, on Nick and elsewhere,” said CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan. “It’s a modest start, but not sufficient to address children’s poor eating habits and the sky-high rates of childhood obesity.”

    Puddings, cookies, or fruit-flavored snacks don’t meet CSPI’s nutrition standards – but they are fans of yogurt. Seventy-three percent of yogurts were up to par.

    •One of eight McDonald’s-approved meals, and 22 of 86 General Mills-approved products
    •Burger King only identified one meal as appropriate to market to children at the time of the study
    •A Kids Meal with Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, apple fries with caramel sauce, and a Hershey’s 1 percent milk

    Other foods that don’t meet CSPI’s standards include:

    •Fruit drinks, often high in sugar with little fruit juice as well as high-fat milk
    •PepsiCo’s 10 products that they say are appropriate to market to children
    •CSPI also has urged Chuck E. Cheese’s, IHOP restaurants, Topps Candy, Yum! Brands (which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut) and Perfetti van Melle (maker of Air Heads candy) to join the CFBAI.
    •Four companies that belong to the CFBAI (Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, Mars, and Cadbury Adams) state that they do not advertise any products to children (according to the CBBB definition).

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/2416px/health/healthy_living/main5761832.shtml?wpisrc=newsletter

  • Probe Nutrition claims on Food/Health packages.

    Long over due action.
    In India, companies are going all out in misleading/fraudulent advertising.A Food Drink major says drinking its product makes one grow twice as taller;health drink manufacturer solemnly assures that consuming their product for two weeks shall reduce weight by 2 1/2 kgs.;tooth paste mfr declaring that those who use it will not lie; toilet soap mfr asserting that those who use it have 40% risk free from infections. Yet another says they reduce weight by 10 kgs.in three weeks!
    Indian HEALTH MINISTRY IS SNORING.

    Story:
    U.S. regulators are examining the growing number of nutrition claims found on the front of food packages after complaints that they give a misleading picture of their health benefits, officials said in a warning to food companies on Tuesday.

    The Food and Drug Administration is trying to determine if any claims violate federal food labeling rules and “will take enforcement action against any egregious examples,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told reporters.

    FDA officials also are developing a proposed regulation to define nutritional criteria for claims made on the front of food packages, Hamburg said.

    The FDA is acting as companies increasingly add nutrition claims to the front of packages to catch the attention of hurried shoppers who might not read the detailed facts about a food’s content on the back, she added.

    “Some nutritionists have questioned whether this information is more marketing-oriented than health-oriented, and judging from some of the labels that we have seen, we think this is a valid concern,” Hamburg
    said.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE59J5Z620091020