Government Moves Toward Regulating Food Advertising Aimed at Teens
In a move that has reportedly angered some industry representatives, the U.S. government has set up a working group to study how food is marketed to youth younger than age 18. Currently, food manufacturers are encouraged to abide by industry-imposed rules for food advertising to children younger than 12. The Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children was announced last week with President Barack Obama’s 2009 omnibus appropriations bill. The group will examine whether the government should set standards for determining which foods are healthy and appropriate to market to youth as old as 17.
A Grocery Manufacturers Association spokesperson was quoted as saying, “This proposal is completely unnecessary. Taxpayer dollars and agency time could be made much better use of. Besides, the proposal—the way it is written—not only reinvents the wheel, it does so poorly with broad, misdirected language that goes far beyond marketing to children. Too far.”
The working group, which is required to report its findings by July 2010, includes representatives of the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Department of Agriculture. See Advertising Age, March 11, 2009; Foodnavigator-usa.com, March 13, 2009.
