While the president’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity released its action plan with 70 specific recommendations to significant praise and fanfare this week, nutrition professor and author Marion Nestle questioned whether the ideas will actually work given their reliance on voluntary collaboration and participation. She said in her blog, “Voluntary, as evidence demonstrates, does not work for the food industry. Much leadership will be needed to make this plan work. But these recommendations should give advocates plenty of inspiration to continue working on these issues.” First lady Michelle Obama joined several task force members when the report was issued and said, “For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks, and measurable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family, and one community at a time. We want to marshal every resource—public and private sector, mayors and governors, parents and educators, business owners…
Tag Archives children
A San Francisco elected official has reportedly asked the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would prohibit “fast food restaurants from including toys with meals marketed at children that are high calorie, high sugar and high in fat.” The request comes after the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors’ recent approval of a similar ordinance. San Francisco District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar (D) told a news source that his effort is intended to reduce childhood obesity. “We will protect our communities from fast food companies that are spending $1.6 billion marketing their wares to children,” he said. See The San Francisco Examiner, April 28, 2010, and Nation’s Restaurant News, May 2, 2010.
Featuring colorful graphics purporting to hawk products ranging from sugar-sweetened cereals and acne medication to sporting goods and meals sold at fast-food restaurants, a new website created by the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) Bureau of Consumer Protection seeks to provide children with the tools they need to properly understand and assess commercial speech. Designed for children in grades four through six, the interactive game with accompanying classroom materials urges children to keep three questions in mind whenever and wherever they are exposed to advertising: Who is responsible for the ad? What is the ad really saying? What does the ad want me to do? FTC announced the website’s launch in late April 2010, and bureau director David Vladeck said that its goal is “to help kids start to understand the commercial world they live in and to be alert to, and think critically, of advertising.” Vladeck reportedly confessed that he…
Bipartisan House sponsors of a bill (H.R. 5209) that would establish a comprehensive national approach to addressing obesity in the United States held a press conference to unveil the measure on May 5, 2010. Appearing with Representatives Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Mary Bono Mack (R-Cal.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) to introduce the Healthy Communities through Helping to Offer Incentives and Choices to Everyone in Society Act of 2010 (Healthy CHOICES Act) were representatives from Del Monte Foods, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, American Heart Association, and the YMCA. Referred to several House committees, the bill would authorize an array of grants, take steps to improve child nutrition, improve access to physical activity for adults and children, improve access to nutritional information and healthy foods, change transportation policies to promote healthy lifestyles, and establish research and assessment tools. Meanwhile, Senators Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) have introduced a bill…
The Liverpool City Council is reportedly considering a ban on the word “obesity” after the Liverpool Schools Parliament, a student body organization, expressed concern that some could find the term offensive. Although some experts have apparently disputed this contention, suggesting that the word adequately reflects the severity of the health condition, students argue that the stigma “would turn people off, particularly young people,” as one youth representative told the press. The proposal would require the council to use the description “unhealthy weight” in all literature geared toward children. “We can’t change government terminology or clinician terminology, but we can look at changing how we communicate weight issues in council reports and in our communications with children,” a council spokesperson was quoted as saying. See BBC News, April 12, 2010; The Telegraph, April 13, 2010. Meanwhile, a South Yorkshire community has also attracted considerable media attention for its aborted plan to…
Comparing fast-food advertising icon Ronald McDonald to Joe Camel, Corporate Accountability International has initiated a campaign calling on McDonald’s Corp. to “Retire Ronald.” The campaign is based on a report, “Clowning with Kids’ Health,” that calls the character “the product of a well-orchestrated and shrewd marketing strategy” that targets those most vulnerable to food-industry marketing—children. The report traces the development of Ronald McDonald, now claimed to be as recognizable as Santa Claus, and notes how the character is even used on report cards in schools. Decrying the “unhealthy food” that the character promotes and the industrial supply chain fast food supports, the report calls on McDonald’s to stop using celebrities or cartoon characters to promote its products and urges individuals to support local efforts to remove food advertising from schools, libraries and playgrounds. Corporate Accountability International is a Boston-based corporate watchdog nonprofit whose advisory board includes nutrition professor Marion Nestle, public…
This article invokes public-health campaigns of the past, including measures taken to increase seat belt use and stop drunk driving, to call for “big-think solutions” to the nation’s obesity problems. The author outlines the factors that have led to a tripling of obesity rates among teenagers, such as a decrease in physical activity; ubiquitous high-calorie, low-nutrient foods; “rampant” food advertising to children; and food “deserts” in urban areas where the nearest convenience store sells candy and white bread. She quotes Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity head Kelly Brownell as saying, “The country defaults to giving industry the benefit of the doubt. Industry says you don’t need to regulate us; we’ll police ourselves. The tobacco industry abused that with God knows how many lives as a consequence. To expect the food industry to be different may be wishful thinking.” Among the measures the author recommends to address the…
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Education and Health and Human Services have requested public input to assist the Task Force on Childhood Obesity. President Barack Obama (D) created the task force in February 2010 to enhance coordination among private sector companies, nonprofits, government agencies, and other organizations to address the critical health issue. The task force was directed to review objectives that include (i) ensuring access to healthy, affordable food; (ii) increasing physical activity in schools and communities; (iii) providing healthier foods in schools; and (iv) empowering parents with information and tools to make good choices for themselves and their families. With these four goals in mind, the task force is seeking recommendations on the most important actions that both the public and private sectors can take, as well as strategies capable of reaching “across geographic areas and to diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic groups.” In addition, comments might identify…
A recent psychology study has reportedly suggested that children younger than age 5 “have emerging knowledge of brands that are relevant in their lives.” Anna McAllister and T. Bettina Cornwell, “Children’s Brand Symbolism Understanding: Links to Theory of Mind and Executive Functioning,” Psychology & Marketing, March 2010. Noting previous research suggesting that “brand symbolism understanding does not develop until 7 to 11 years of age,” the study authors nevertheless found that younger children not only recognize brands, but are already beginning to understand brands “as social systems.” McAllister and Cornwell first asked 38 children ages 3 to 5 to identify brand name logos for 50 brands across 16 product categories, including fast food. The researchers then interviewed 42 3-to-6 year olds to determine their brand symbolism understanding. “Surprisingly, there were children as young as 3 who were making very strong judgments when comparing McDonald’s and Burger King,” one author was quoted…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has issued a report card that rates 128 companies for their policies on marketing food to children. According to CSPI, most of the food makers, restaurants and entertainment companies failed “either for having weak policies or for failing to have any policies whatsoever.” Based on research conducted in summer 2009, the report found that industry spends some $2 billion on youth marketing annually. Grades in the “Report Card on Food-Marketing Policies” ranged from a B+ for Mars, Inc., for its policy to exclude marketing to children ages 12 and younger, to an F for Denny’s “for marketing to children through its children’s menu, which includes many nutritionally poor items; games on its Web site; and a kid’s birthday club.” In all, seven of the companies earned a D, and 95 received an F. “Despite the industry’s self-regulatory system, the vast majority…
