Food Advertising and Kids
Top Companies Announce Voluntary Changes in Marketing Practices
Jul 20, 2007
Advertisers spend millions of dollars on marketing efforts to children and teens each year. With growing concerns about childhood obesity and the reported links to food commercials, many people feel that changes in how companies are permitted to market their products are long overdue. Talk of more government oversight in this area may have prompted some companies to start talking about making some changes on their own.
Eleven of the major food companies, including McDonald’s and Pepsi, recently agreed to several limitations on marketing food to children. Kellogg’s led the way on this front, possibly in an attempt to avoid a potential lawsuit from parents and advocacy groups. Kellogg’s announced plans to reformulate some of its products to make them more nutritional, and to make changes in how other products are marketed.
Among the changes, the companies stated that they would voluntarily stop advertising foods that failed to meet certain “nutritional standards” during television shows aimed at children 12 and under. They also agreed to stop using licensed characters in advertising media, including internet, print, and television.
While this is a great first step, some critics feel that this does not go far enough. For one thing, the limitations are voluntary. Under threat of government regulation, these companies offered up their own ideas in hopes that they would satisfy the public in this current climate of concern about food advertising to kids. But because they are not mandated to adhere to these changes, and plans to monitor compliance are nonexistent, there is likely to be little uniformity in how these changes are enacted.
Additionally, there is nothing preventing companies from changing their minds. Companies can enjoy the positive PR that publicly announcing their adherence to this plan provides, and are then free to quietly go back to their old practices without repercussion.
Another criticism of this plan is that removing these types of ads from kids’ shows doesn’t take into consideration the vast amount of children that watch hours and hours of programming that is not technically “children’s programming.” Marketers are still free to run their ads and use product placements in prime time shows and the like, many of which are regularly viewed by large numbers of kids.
Stopping the practice of using beloved children’s characters to hawk unhealthy foods in advertising is also a positive step. But these characters will still be clearly visible on the packages of the hundreds of food products kids beg their parents for on every trip to the grocery store. Because these boxes and packages come into the home, the multiple viewings they receive from children make them a powerful form of brand placement in their own right.
You may also be interested in Tobacco Advertising and Teens or New Cigarette Targets Girls.
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