A panel commissioned by Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has issued a March 2013 report outlining a three-part strategy designed to curb rising childhood obesity rates by supporting families, changing the food environment and creating healthy communities. Titled “No Time to Wait: The Healthy Kids Strategy,” the report specifically recommends, among other things, that regulators (i) “ban the marketing of high-calorie, low-nutrient foods, beverages and snacks to children under age 12”; (ii) “ban point-of-sale promotions and displays of high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and beverages in retail settings, beginning with sugar-sweetened beverages”; (iii) “require all restaurants, including fast food outlets and retail grocery stores, to list the calories in each item on their menus and to make this information visible on menu boards”; and (iv) “develop a single standard guideline for food and beverages served or sold where children play and learn.” “Ontario is at a tipping point,” concluded the…
Tag Archives children
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and the Berkeley Media Studies Group have published a report criticizing top cereal manufacturers for allegedly targeting children with “sophisticated online marketing techniques.” Andrew Cheyne, et al., “Marketing Sugary Cereals to Children in the Digital Age: A Content Analysis of 17 Child-Targeted Websites,” Journal of Health Communication, February 2013. Focusing on 17 branded cereal websites between October 2008 and March 2009, the study’s authors reported that these sites employed a mix of techniques such as “advergames, videos, site registration, and viral marketing” to engage children in “lengthier and more sophisticated” interactions “than are possible with traditional, passive media such as television advertisements or product packaging.” In particular, the study relied on Internet traffic data to allegedly suggest that children spent more time on sites with higher levels of immersion, that is, “the most and most sophisticated techniques.” These high-immersion sites reportedly brought…
Researchers with the University of Amsterdam’s School of Communication Research and Radboud University’s Behavioral Science Institute have published a study examining the effect of advergames on children’s actual food intake. Frans Folkvord, et al., “The effect of playing advergames that promote energy-dense snacks or fruit on actual food intake among children,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2013. The study focused on 270 children asked to play an advergame that promoted an energy-dense snack, fruit, or a non-food product, and then monitored “the free intake of energy-dense snacks and fruit.” The study’s authors ultimately reported that “an advergame containing food cues increased general energy intake, regardless of the advertised brand or product type (energy-dense snacks or fruit), and this activity particularly increased the intake of energy-dense snack foods.” They also noted that participants who played the fruit advergame “did not consume more fruit than did those in the other groups,” instead…
Joining the nearly dozen states that have enacted laws to restrict bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging—particularly with respect to children’s food and beverage containers—New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it illegal to sell or distribute food and beverage containers intended for use by young children that contain the chemical. The bill cites BPA studies alleging “cause for concern about the hazards of exposure to it, such as possible neural and behavioral effects caused by BPA in utero, and further concern that the chemical could cause problems in developing fetuses and young children.” Introduced by Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D-Burlington) and known as the “Child Food and Beverage Packaging Act,” the legislation would make it “an unlawful consumer fraud practice for a person to sell, offer for sale or distribute for sale in the state a food or beverage storage container made with or composed of BPA and…
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint lodged by the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) against Weetabix Ltd.’s product-branded app, concluding that the “WeetaKid” game, which prompted players to scan QR codes during game-play, “was persuasive and negative, and could lead children to understand that if they did not eat Weetabix they were failing in some way.” Focusing on several online games created by Weetabix, FPI apparently challenged whether (i) the WeetaKid app “exploited the credulity, loyalty, vulnerability or lack of experience of children by making them feel inferior or unpopular for not buying a product”; (ii) the WeetaKid app “included a direct exhortation to children to buy an advertised product”; (iii) advergames “on the Weetos and Nickelodeon websites were obviously identifiable as marketing communications”; and (iv) some of the advergames “advertised Weetos Bars, which would be classified as a product high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS),…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed new rules that would regulate the nutritional content of snacks, soft drinks and meals sold in school cafeterias, vending machines and snack bars. According to a USDA news release, the “Smart Snacks in School” proposal draws upon “recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, existing voluntary standards already implemented by thousands of schools around the country, and healthy food and beverage offerings already available in the marketplace.” Required under the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, the new rules are part of the government’s efforts to combat childhood obesity by establishing nutrition standards for all food sold in schools—not just federally subsidized school breakfasts and lunches. “Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Good nutrition lays the groundwork…
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has declined to uphold five complaints alleging that a TV commercial for Weetabix Ltd.’s Weetos breakfast cereal promoted “poor nutritional habits and an unhealthy lifestyle in children, because… it encouraged excessive consumption.” According to ASA, the ad in question showed a child eating Weetos for breakfast and later in the day as a snack, with the product’s tagline stating “FOR BREAKFAST AND BEYOND.” Rebutting the allegations, Weetabix reportedly said that “the ad was lighthearted but did not encourage excessive consumption” or poor nutritional habits, especially since the cereal advertised was “not a high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) product as defined by the Food Standards Agency.” The company also argued that the portions shown in the commercial were consistent with marketing conventions and standards, as well as research indicating that consumers often ate Weetos for snacks and meals other than breakfast. “[Weetabix] considered that…
A recent analysis of young children enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 has reportedly claimed that sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption “was independently associated with alterations in lipid profiles, increased markers of inflammation, and increased waist circumference in children.” Ethan Kosova, et al., “The Relationships between Sugar Sweetened Beverage Intake and Cardiometabolic Markers in Young Children,” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, February 2013. Analyzing data from 4,880 NHANES participants ages 3 to 11, the study relied on 24-hour dietary recall interviews to gauge SSB consumption in addition to examining the following cardiometabolic markers: (i) total cholesterol concentrations, (ii) high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, (iii) low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, (iv) triglyceride, (v) C-reactive protein (CRP), (vi) waist circumference, and (vii) body mass index percentile for age-sex. According to the study, multivariate linear regression analyses evidently demonstrated that “SSB intake in children aged 3 to 11 years…
In an effort to combat marketing to children, a Washington, D.C.-based organic grocer has stopped stocking products whose packaging features cartoon characters from books, movies and TV programs. According to a MOM’s Organic Market news release, products such as Dora the Explorer frozen soybeans will be replaced with alternatives in cartoon-free packaging. “Marketing to children is wrong and should be illegal,” said MOM’s founder and CEO Scott Nash. “Advertising is a shady game. It focuses on creating a shallow emotional attachment instead of pointing out the merits of a product. Unfortunately, it works—and young children are particularly susceptible.” “Using beloved media characters to sell kids on a particular brand of food is wrong, even if it’s healthy food,” said Susan Linn, Director of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. “Children should not be trained to pick foods based on the cartoon on the box. We congratulate MOM’s for taking…
Research based on the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Phase Three has reportedly linked fast food consumption to asthma and eczema severity in kids. Philippa Ellwood, et al., “Do fast foods cause asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema? Global findings from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Phase Three,” Thorax, January 2013. Analyzing data from more than 319,000 13- to 14-year-old adolescents in 51 countries and more than 181,000 6- to 7-year-old children in 31 countries, the study evidently relied on written questionnaires that asked participants about their asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema symptoms, as well as their dietary habits. In addition to “a potential protective effect on severe asthma… associated with consumption of fruit ≥3 times per week,” the results allegedly found that children and adolescents who consumed fast food three or more times per week had an increased risk of severe asthma, severe rhinoconjunctivitis…
