FTC Announces Plan to Study Food, Beverage Marketing Targeted to Kids
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced its intention to issue compulsory process orders to 48 food and beverage manufacturers, distributors, marketers, and quick service restaurant companies for information on their marketing activities and expenditures targeted toward children and adolescents. FTC also seeks nutritional information about the companies’ food and beverage products marketed to children and adolescents in calendar years 2006 and 2009 “to evaluate possible changes in the nutritional content and variety of youth-marketed foods.”
The plan follows FTC’s July 2008 report that analyzed expenditures and promotional activities related to food and food products targeted toward children and adolescents in 2006. FTC wants to use the new data to study how industry allocates promotional activities and expenditures among various media and for different food products and to evaluate the impact of self-regulatory efforts on the nutritional profiles of foods marketed to children and adolescents.
Based on the calendar year 2009, FTC requests marketing information on (i) “the categories of foods marketed to children (ages 2-11 years) and adolescents (ages 12-17 years)”; (ii) “the types of measured and unmeasured media techniques used to market food products to children and adolescents”; (iii) “the amount spent to communicate marketing messages about food products to youth”; (iv) “the nature of the marketing activities used to market food products to youth”; (v) “marketing to youth of a specific gender, race, ethnicity, or income level”; and (vi) “marketing policies, initiatives, or research in effect or undertaken by the companies relating to the marketing of food and beverage products to children and adolescents.” Comments are requested by June 24, 2010. See Federal Register, May 25, 2010.
