The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Eating Research program, has released a legal issue brief titled “It’s Not Just for Teens: Viral Marketing to Young Children.” Intended as a guide for state attorneys general and claiming that “[f]ood marketers are in the forefront of using viral marketing online,” the paper contends that this use of “viral marketing techniques to young children warrants careful scrutiny under state consumer protection laws.” The paper describes how (i) this marketing works, (ii) companies make money from the practice and (iii) the practice is deceptive. According to PHAI, “Viral marketing turns children into unwitting viral marketers promoting a company’s brand image and products to their friends. . . . Despite the sophistication of the technology they use, children today remain uniquely ‘unqualified by age or experience’ to evaluate viral marketing and firms use deceptive tactics to hide…
Category Archives Other Developments
The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has published a study urging a broader definition of “child-directed” TV advertising than the one currently employed by the industry-backed Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). Jennifer Harris, et al., “Redefining ‘Child-Direct Advertising’ to Reduce Unhealthy Television Food Advertising,” American Journal of Preventative Medicine, March 2013. According to the study, CFBAI covers TV advertising only “during programs for which children make up 35% or more of the viewing audience.” By comparison, Rudd Center Director of Marketing Initiatives Jennifer Harris and her colleagues have suggested that broadening the definition of child-directed advertising “to include programs with a child-audience share of 20% or higher and/or 100,000 or more child viewers would cover 70%-71% of food advertising seen by children but just one third of ads seen by adults.” To support this recommendation, the study’s authors used Nielsen data from all national TV programs aired…
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF’s) Healthy Eating Research (HER) panel has released a set of age-based “Recommendations for Healthier Beverages” that urge government buildings, workplaces and other public venues to increase the availability of water and unflavored milk as replacements for high-calorie beverages. Billed as “an advisory panel of prominent researchers, nutritionists and policy experts,” HER evidently arrived at its findings after reviewing “current beverage standards, recommendations, and guidelines from scientific bodies, national organizations, public health organizations, and the beverage industry.” HER has generally recommended that “water should be available and promoted in all settings where beverages are offered” and endorsed unflavored, low-fat and nonfat milk in age-appropriate portions as a way for children to get adequate amounts of calcium, vitamin D, potassium, and other nutrients. The panel would also permit the consumption of small amounts of 100 percent fruit juice—ranging from 0 to-4-ounce portions for preschool children and 0-to-8-ounce…
During a recent press conference, counsel for Monster Energy reportedly addressed claims made in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the company by the parents of a Maryland teenager who allegedly died after consuming the company’s energy drink. The company’s experts have apparently reviewed the medical records in the case and determined that “there is no medical, scientific or factual evidence to support the Maryland medical examiner’s report of ‘caffeine toxicity’ or that Ms. Fournier’s consumption of two Monster Energy Drinks 24 hours apart contributed to, let alone was the cause of her untimely death.” Apparently, no blood tests were conducted to confirm the examiner’s finding, and the 14-year-old had pre-existing conditions—an enlarged heart, a vascular form of connective tissue disease, mitral valve prolapse, and myocardial fibrosis—that purportedly increased her risk of cardiac arrest and sudden death. The company was apparently motivated to call the press conference after a Chicago…
A research letter published February 25, 2013, in JAMA Internal Medicine claims that less than 10 percent of surveyed packaged food products provided information about potassium content on their nutrition facts panels (NFPs). Noting that under current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy the disclosure of potassium levels is optional, researchers with New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene apparently examined the labels of 6,560 products culled from a database created in 2009 for the National Salt Reduction Initiative. Their findings evidently revealed that “most packaged food products do not include potassium content on the NFP” despite concerns that some consumers may need to monitor their intake of the electrolyte. In particular, the study found that in almost one-half of the 61 food categories identified in the database, “potassium content was available for less than 1% of products.” It also identified the five categories—“vegetable juice; seasoned processed potatoes; instant…
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) has announced a March 18, 2013, webinar to discuss how “America’s sweet-laden diet is helping drive obesity and chronic metabolic disease.” Titled “Sickly Sweet: The Science and Policy of Fructose Overconsumption in America,” the webinar will reportedly be led by Robert Lustig, a specialist in neuroendocrinology at the UCSF School of Medicine who has garnered attention in national venues such as The New York Times for comparing sugar to a poison and linking it to metabolic dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, liver cancer, and other non-communicable diseases.
A non-profit focusing on childhood obesity has issued its first annual progress report on private sector commitments to address the issue. According to the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), nearly 3 million children “got moving in 2012,” more than 8,000 “new physical activity opportunities became available for kids in 2012,” dozens of new or renovated grocery stores opened in or near “food deserts” making healthier food available to more than half-a-million “low-access individuals,” and “$18 million has been spent in the last 18 months in financing for new retail channels and innovative food distribution programs.” See PHA Press Release, March 7, 2013.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has issued a pre-publication summary of its workshop “New Challenges and Opportunities for Change in Food Marketing to Children and Youth.” Conducted by IOM’s Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention, the November 5, 2012, workshop featured “presentations and discussion on contemporary trends in marketing of foods and beverages to children and youth and the implications of those trends for obesity prevention.” According to IOM, “[t]he childhood obesity epidemic is an urgent public health problem, and it will continue to take a substantial toll on the health of Americans. The most recent data show that almost a third of U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or obese.”
A recent article published in the Journal of Public Policy has recommended “a national regulatory system prohibiting commercial marketing of foods and beverages to children” as part of an effort to curb rising obesity rates in Canada. Kim Raine, et al., “Restricting marketing to children: Consensus on policy interventions to address obesity,” Journal of Public Policy, February 2013. Building on a consensus conference held in April 2011 by the Alberta Policy Coalition for Chronic Disease Prevention, the article’s authors lay out a policy framework for evaluating “the political environment, evidence, issues, and challenges of placing restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages.” In particular, they describe the industry-sponsored Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative as “insufficient,” noting that in addition to TV advertising, marketers have increasingly adopted new media—“the Internet, adver-gaming, mobile messaging, and viral marketing”—that do not fall under current standards. As a result, the article urges…
According to media sources, German officials have apparently launched an investigation into more than 160 farms accused of flouting the standards governing organic and free-range egg production. Lower Saxony and two other states have apparently announced an ongoing probe into poultry establishments, including 40 organic farms, that allegedly marketed their eggs as organic or free-range while keeping their hens in overcrowded conditions. Those operators found in beach of EU regulations face both fines and up to six months in prison. “If the accusations are found to be true, then we are talking of fraud on a grand scale: fraud against consumers but also fraud against the many organic farmers in Germany who work honestly,” said German Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister Isle Aigner. “Consumers must be able to rely on the fact that what is written (on the produce) is also in there. Therefore it is important that this…
