The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has found the proposed cy pres distribution inappropriate and unacceptably vague and the attorney’s fees unreasonable in a settlement of class claims that the Kellogg Co. violated consumer protection laws by advertising its Frosted Mini-Wheats® cereal as a product that was clinically shown to improve children’s attentiveness by nearly 20 percent. Dennis v. Kellogg Co., Nos. 11-55674, -55706 (9th Cir., decided July 13, 2012). Additional information about the case appears in Issues 368 and 392 of this Update. The company’s settlement of related false-advertising charges filed by the Federal Trade Commission is discussed in Issue 301 of this Update. Under the agreement, class members could recover up to a maximum of $15, and any remaining funds would be donated to “charities chosen by the parties and approved by the Court pursuant to the cy pres doctrine.” According to the court, about $800,000 had been…
Tag Archives children
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has issued a report claiming that cereal companies “have improved the nutritional quality of most cereals marketed directly to children, but they have also increased advertising to children for many of their least nutritious products.” Titled Cereal F.A.C.T.S. Food Advertising to Children and Teens Score, the report analyzes the nutritional quality of more than 100 brands and nearly 300 individual varieties of cereal marketed to children, families and adults while examining industry advertising on TV, the Internet and social media sites. According to the report, while nutritional quality improved for 22 cereal brands advertised to children in both 2008 and 2011, total media spending to promote child-targeted cereals increased by 34 percent during that same time period. Among its findings, the report concludes that (i) “Children viewed fewer TV ads for 7 of 14 child-targeted brands, including Corn Pops and Honeycomb”; (ii)…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and Berkeley Media Studies Group have asked Nestlé CEO Brad Alford to stop marketing limited-edition Crunch® candy bars with three Girl Scout cookie flavors. Their June 18, 2012, letter contends that the co-branding initiative “violates your pledge not to target children with marketing for candy.” The products apparently feature the Girl Scout logo, and the groups assert that this tie-in and logo “will attract the attention of and appeal to children” because Girl Scouts are children, with some “2.3 million girls, in Kindergarten through 12th grade,” participating in scout activities nationwide. “Even if the candy bar advertising is targeted towards adults, the Girl Scout’s theme is inherently appealing to children and so constitutes marketing to children,” according to the letter. The groups close with, “Marketing thematically geared towards children is marketing to children. We look forward to discussing this further with…
The American Medical Association (AMA) has reportedly championed taxes on sugar-sweetened sodas as a way to fight obesity. Although it failed to pass a policy that outright supports such a measure, the AMA recognized during its recent annual meeting that “while a number of factors contribute to the obesity epidemic, taxes on beverages with added sweeteners are one way to finance consumer education campaigns and other obesity-related programs.” To that end, the physicians group voted to adopt a policy supporting obesity-prevention education for children and teens in public schools that encourages doctors to volunteer to teach classes on causes, consequences and prevention. “I can’t tell you the number of 40-pound 1 year-olds I see every day,” pediatrician Melissa Garretson was quoted as saying. See AMA Press Release, June 20, 2012; Associated Press, June 21, 2012.
A recent study has reportedly claimed that children who are overweight or obese “are more likely to have a neurological disease known as idiopathic intracranial hypertension [IIH], a rare condition that can result in blindness.” Sonu Brara, et al., “Pediatric Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension and Extreme Childhood Obesity,” Journal of Pediatrics, May 2012. Researchers apparently analyzed data from 900,000 participants in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) Children’s Health Study, concluding that 57 (73.1 percent) of the 78 KSPC children and adolescents diagnosed with IIH were overweight or obese. These children were also more likely to be age 11 or older at diagnosis as well as white, non-Hispanic and female. “Consistent with two previous studies, we found that female sex and obesity first emerge as strong IIH risk factors in postpubertal age children,” reported the study’s authors. “Extremely obese adolescents were 16 times more likely than normal weight children to have…
A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has purportedly identified a sharp increase in the prevalence of prediabetes/ diabetes among U.S. adolescents aged 12 to 19 years, from 9 percent in 1999-2000 to 23 percent in 2007-2008. Ashleigh May, et al., “Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Among US Adolescents, 1999−2008,” Pediatrics, May 2012. Relying on data from 3,383 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), CDC researchers concluded that among adolescents, “the overall prevalence was 14% for prehypertension/hypertension, 22% for borderline-high/high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 6% for low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (<35 mg/DL), and 15% for prediabetes/diabetes during the survey period from 1999 to 2008.” The study’s authors noted, however, that while there was “no significant change in prehypertension/hypertension and borderline-high/high lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol prevalence from 1999-2000 to 2007-2008,” prediabetes/diabetes prevalence rose by 14 percent. They also reported that 37 percent of…
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), Public Citizen and Corporate Accountability International are reportedly urging the PBS network to “end a four-year marketing agreement between the popular children’s show ‘Martha Speaks’ and the fast food chain Chick-fil-A.” The marketing agreement includes 15-second ads for the restaurant before and after the show and in-store giveaways at more than 1,600 Chick-fil-A locations. According to the watchdog groups, “an astounding 56 million Chick-fil-A Kids’ Meals—which contain as much as 670 calories and 29 grams of fat—were distributed in Martha Speaks co-branded bags” in 2011. The groups also called for PBS member station WGBH, which produces “Martha Speaks,” to withdraw the ads from nomination for a children’s marketing award. “PBS deserves lots of awards, but using a beloved character to lure kids to a fast food restaurant is nothing to celebrate,” said CCFC’s Susan Linn. See CCFC Press Release, May 23, 2012.
Reuters has issued a “special report” titled “How Washington went soft on childhood obesity” that details how food and beverage industry interests have allegedly turned aside national and statewide initiatives aimed at addressing childhood obesity. According to the article, “[a]t every level of government, the food and beverage industries won fight after fight during the last decade. They have never lost a significant political battle in the United States despite mounting scientific evidence of the role of unhealthy food and children’s marketing in obesity.” A number of industry critics, including Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity Director Kelly Brownell, and Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Executive Director Michael Jacobson, are quoted making comparisons between the tactics used by the food and beverage industries and those used by tobacco companies. The report focuses on first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, which has…
In response to “thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms,” the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has withdrawn a proposal intended to reduce injuries among children working on farms by, among other matters, prohibiting them from using certain equipment. Instead, the Departments of Labor and Agriculture “will work with rural stakeholders—such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union, the Future Farmers of America, and 4-H—to develop an educational program to reduce accidents to young workers and promote safer agricultural working practices.” Information about the proposed rule and a proposed “parental exemption,” that did not apparently satisfy critics, appears in Issue 425 of this Update. See DOL News Release, April 26, 2012.
A recent study attempting “to isolate the causal effect of junk food availability on children’s food consumption and body mass index (BMI)” has concluded that access to competitive foods in schools “does not significantly increase BMI or obesity among this fifth-grade cohort despite the increased likelihood of in-school junk food purchases.” Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia, “Junk Food in Schools and Childhood Obesity,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Spring 2012. According to the researchers, who used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Class as well as an instrumental variables (IV) approach leveraging “the well-documented fact that junk foods are significantly more prevalent in middle and high schools relative to elementary schools,” the results evidently revealed that where previous models had identified “any small positive associations” between junk food availability and obesity, those associations became insignificant “when controls for BMI at school entry and fixed state effects are added.”…
