Ford Motor Company and Domino's Pizza Inc. have reportedly announced tests for a self-driving car that delivers pizza. The car will carry orders in external compartments that can be accessed by entering the last four digits of the customer's phone number. A safety driver, a Ford engineer and a Domino's employee will accompany the car during the testing process. Additional information about the development of self-driving cars can be found in the Autonomous and Connected Vehicles Update, Shook's newsletter covering the legal and regulatory landscape of the autonomous vehicle industry.
Category Archives Other Developments
An apparent glitch in a Peppes Pizza advertisement in Oslo, Norway, reportedly revealed to passersby that the ad determined whether to show pizza or salad to its audience based on gender as perceived by facial-recognition software. The digital billboard used a hidden camera to scan faces of the audience and showed images of sausage pizza for men and salads for women. The glitch revealed that the software scanned for the gender of the viewer, the age segment, the length of time the viewer looked at the ad, and whether the viewer was wearing glasses or smiling. After the glitch gained attention as a purported breach of privacy in Norwegian media, the hidden camera was reportedly removed. See The Outline, May 12, 2017. Issue 635
Slim-Fast Foods Co. has ended its “100 Calories Snacks” advertisements appearing in Star magazine after the advertising industry’s self-regulation investigative unit, the National Advertising Division, determined that the format of the ads could mislead consumers into believing they were part of the publication’s editorial content. The cover of Star featured “what appeared to be an article on weight loss that claimed, ‘Joann LOST 40 lbs’ and ‘snack away the weight,’” which directed readers to a page with a piece titled “Snack Your Way to Slim” that detailed three women’s efforts to lose weight and how Slim-Fast snacks supposedly helped. Slim-Fast has reportedly agreed to discontinue the advertisements at issue as well as the advertising format. Issue 626
The University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has released a study on TV food advertising viewed by preschoolers, children and adolescents, claiming that “food advertising exposure increased with age for both black and white youth, but black youth viewed approximately 50% or more ads than did white youth of the same age.” F. Fleming-Milici and J. L. Harris, “Television food advertising viewed by preschoolers, children and adolescents: contributors to differences in exposure for black and white youth in the United States,” Pediatric Obesity, December 2016. Based on Nielsen panel data gathered between 2008 and 2012, the study reports that “increases in food-ads-per-hour increased exposure for all youth,” but that greater TV viewing and higher rates of advertising “on youth- and black-targeted networks both contributed to black youth’s greater exposure.” “Four product categories contributed almost 60% of food ads viewed by all youth in 2012: breakfast cereals,…
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a November 4, 2016, report titled "Tackling food marketing to children in a digital world: trans-disciplinary perspectives," which urges policymakers “to reduce children’s exposure to all forms of marketing for foods high in fats, salt and sugars [HFSS], including via digital media.” In particular, the report claims digital marketing campaigns take advantage of regulatory loopholes to amplify the traditional media advertising of HFSS foods, “achieving greater ad attention and recall, greater brand awareness and more positive brand attitudes, greater intent to purchase and higher product sales.” The report calls attention to the privacy issues that purportedly surround the digital marketing of foods to children, including the collection and use of geo-location and personal data. It also warns that “some food chains partner with gaming companies in order to, for example, make the chain’s restaurants important game locations,” while other advertisers reportedly rely on advergames, social…
France has reportedly passed a ban on plastic cups, knives, forks and plates as part of an ecological initiative, Energy Transition for Green Growth. The prohibition, which takes effect in 2020, targets the nearly 5 billion plastic cups discarded annually in France. The country is reportedly the first to target plastic dishware. A Brussels-based organization representing European packaging manufacturers, Pack2Go Europe, has reportedly vowed to fight the ban to prevent similar measures from passing in other European countries. “We are urging the European Commission to do the right thing and to take legal action against France for infringing European law,” Pack2Go Europe Secretary General Eamonn Bates told The Associated Press. “If they don’t, we will.” See Associated Press, September 12, 2016; The Local, September 13, 2016. Issue 617
Several companies have formed a new group to promote a balanced discussion of alcoholic beverage consumption and address implementation of U.K. labeling recommendations. The Alcohol Information Partnership (AIP) reportedly plans to draw attention to research showing that most adults consume alcohol responsibly and that binge drinking is in decline. In addition, the companies behind the new initiative reportedly plan to meet with the U.K. Department of Health before adopting its voluntary guidelines, which, in part, ask labels to declare that there is “no safe level” of alcoholic beverage consumption. “Alcohol misuse is an incredibly serious issue,” said AIP Director-General Dave Roberts. “As a society, we should continue to have rigorous debate about how best we continue to tackle and reduce alcohol misuse. But the debate has become increasingly imbalanced and characterized by poor representation of the evidence… The Alcohol Information Partnership is here to bring balance back to the debate…
Researchers with the University of California, San Francisco, including its Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, published a September 12, 2016, JAMA article claiming that studies funded by the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF) “singled out fat and cholesterol as the dietary causes of CHD [coronary heart disease] and downplayed evidence that sucrose consumption was also a risk factor.” Titled “Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents,” the special communication analyzes correspondence, internal documents, historical reports, and other statements obtained from SRF and its scientific advisors. The article authors allege that SRF initiated its own CHD research in 1962, after preliminary studies suggested that a low-fat diet high in sugar raises serum cholesterol levels. To this end, the SRF purportedly funded a New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) literature review “arguing that epidemiologic, animal, and mechanistic studies associating sucrose with CHD were limited, implying…
Timed to coincide with PepsiCo’s limited reintroduction of Crystal Pepsi soft drinks, SumOfUs has launched a viral video campaign to draw attention to its allegations against the palm-oil industry. The video—which spoofs PepsiCo’s 1992 Super Bowl spot—has garnered media attention as well as more than 875,000 views on YouTube. In particular, SumOfUs reportedly claims that PepsiCo’s palm-oil policy does not cover Indonesia-based producer, IndoFood. According to Rainforest Action Network’s Gemma Tillack, “A nostalgia for rollerblades and fanny packs is fine, but it’s crystal clear PepsiCo needs to open its eyes and realize we are no longer in the 1990’s and deforestation, wildlife extinction and labor abuses are no longer acceptable costs of doing business.” See Politico.com and Ad Age, August 9, 2016. Meanwhile, an August 18 Forbes column authored by Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Hank Cardello argues that food companies and marketers “no longer have the sole power to shape consumer…
The American Heart Association (AHA) has issued a scientific statement allegedly linking added sugar consumption “at levels far below current consumption levels” to cardiovascular disease risk factors in children. Published in the August 22, 2016, issue of Circulation, the statement recommends that children consume less than 25 grams (100 calories or approximately six teaspoons) of added sugar per day, while advocating that children younger than age 2 should avoid added sugars altogether. After reviewing the latest studies on the topic, the AHA committee apparently identified “strong evidence” backing “the association of added sugars with increased cardiovascular disease risk in children through increase energy intake, increase adiposity, and dyslipidemia.” Among other things, the statement finds that “foods and beverages each contribute half of the added sugars in children’s diets, 40 g each,” and includes soda, fruit-flavored and sports drinks, cakes, and cookies as the top contributors to added sugar in children’s…
