Food Marketing to Youth Discussed in Brussels

According to public health lawyer and activist Michele Simon, who recently
attended a meeting in Brussels “to address the problem of cross-border
marketing of unhealthy food to children,” the same types of issues confronting
public health advocates in the United States confront their counterparts in
Europe. Regulatory standards are apparently under development, but Simon
did not share the details because they are still in draft and the meeting was
closed to the public.

She did, however, discuss a presentation by an industry representative who
apparently outlined voluntary efforts that food and beverage companies
have undertaken in Europe to decrease the number of TV ads children are
exposed to. Simon questioned the effectiveness of these efforts and industry’s
transparency, noting that the messages companies are delivering to children
in other ways, such as the Internet, are not apparently being tracked.
Simon also provided a summary of the Federal Trade Commission’s update
on “the stalled federal voluntary guidelines in process here.” According to an
agency representative, proposed voluntary guidelines should be issued in the
next two to three months and will be followed by a 45-day comment period.
The proposal will not apparently differ to a great extent from a draft published
in December 2009, but is intended “to be feasible, something industry will
adopt on a voluntary basis, and [will not] be dead on arrival.”

Simon concludes, “I left Brussels with the impression that the food industry is
engaging in the same charade all over the world: setting weak, self-serving,
voluntary guidelines designed to ensure companies can keep right on
marketing their unhealthy brands to children while mollifying regulators and
distracting researchers with evaluating their useless pledges, commitments,
and initiatives.” See Corporations and Health Watch, March 23, 2011.

Meanwhile, the same online publication has made available reports prepared
by the Berkeley Media Studies Group on marketing issues. They are “The
Soda and Fast-Food Industries Target their Marketing Towards Mothers of
Color,” and “Target Marketing Soda & Fast Food: Problems with Business as
Usual.” The group contends that the industries “exploit cultural ties and values
to create a demand for some of the unhealthiest foods and beverages that
contribute to the obesity epidemic” and foster “structural racism” by perpetuating
misleading stereotypes and “promoting high fat, sugary, salty foods to
communities where the rates of childhood obesity are highest and growing
the fastest.” See Corporations and Health Watch, April 6, 2011.