Online only: Food companies’ marketing strategies don’t protect kids, study finds
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Most food and entertainment companies have no protections in place for marketing unhealthy products to children, a new study has found.

The study, released in March by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, graded 128 food and entertainment companies’ policies for peddling sugary treats, cereals, snacks and other unhealthy foods to children. About 75 percent of the companies brought home failing grades for having weak policies or no policies whatsoever.

“Despite the industry’s self-regulatory system, the vast majority of food and entertainment companies have no protections in place for children,” said Center for Science in the Public Interest nutrition policy director Margo Wootan, DSc, who is an APHA member. “If companies were marketing bananas and broccoli, we wouldn’t be concerned. But instead, most of the marketing is for sugary cereals, fast food, snack foods and candy. And this junk food marketing is a major contributor to childhood obesity.”

Of the 128 companies analyzed in the study, “Report Card on Food-Marketing Policies,” 68 percent did not have a policy for food marketing to children. The study found that food and beverage manufacturers were much more likely to have policies in place than restaurants or entertainmenet companies. While no company earned an “A” for its policy, the highest grade among food companies, a “B+,” went to Mars for having a strong policy that does not allow its products to be marketed to children younger than 12. But 95 food companies received an “F,” and of those, eight had very weak marketing policies and 87 did not have a policy at all.

Among entertainment companies, Qubo Ventures — a producer of childrens’ television shows and Web sites— received the highest grade, a “B,” for having a “comprehensive policy that applies reasonably good nutrition standards to its full range of marketing.” According to the study, eight out of 10 entertainment companies surveyed did not have a food marketing policy, and when they did, the policies were generally more limited in scope than the policies of food and beverage manufacturers.

“Without more significant progress in the next two years, the country will need to rely on government regulation, rather than self-regulation, as the means to address food marketing to children,” said the report.

According to the report, companies spent about $2 billion in 2006 on costs associated with marketing foods and beverages to children through traditional media, such as television, radio, magazines, product packaging and in-store displays and promotions. Other approaches used to reach children include the Internet; ads in movie theaters; school-based marketing; product placement in movies and video games; marketing in amusement parks; food-themed toys, clothing and other merchandise; “and almost anywhere a logo or product image can be shown,” the report said.

For self-regulation of food marketing to children to be effective, the Center for Science in the Public Interest called on all food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants and entertainment companies that market to children to have a written food marketing policy that is readily available to the public. In addition, companies should use a uniform set of strong nutrition standards and a uniform set of definitions for marketing that is directed to children.

“If food, toy and media companies fail to adopt those voluntary standards, they will be clanging the death knell for their self-regulatory initiative and inviting strong government involvement in food marketing aimed at kids,” Wootan said.

For more information or to download the study, visit [www.cspinet.org](http://www.cspinet.org).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association