FTC Testifies on Report Regarding Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents

Commissioner Jon Leibowitz testified that the report, Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation, found 44 major food and beverage marketers spent $1.6 billion to promote their products to children under 12 and adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the United States in 2006. The Commission recommends that all food and beverage companies adopt and adhere to meaningful nutrition-based standards for marketing their products to children under 12.

A useful first step would be to join the CBBB [Council of Better Business Bureaus] Initiative. In other words, all companies should take measures to limit their food and beverage promotions directed to children to those for healthier products.

Second, given the integrated nature of most marketing campaigns, the Commission also recommends that these nutrition-based standards be extended beyond television, radio, print, and Internet advertising, to cover the full spectrum of marketing activities to children, including product packaging, advertising displays at the retail site, premium distribution, celebrity endorsements, and other promotional activities.

Third, the Commission also recommends that all companies stop in-school promotion of foods and beverages that do not meet meaningful nutrition-based standards. In addition, all companies that sell 'competitive' food or beverage products in schools (outside of the school meal program) should join the Alliance for a Healthier Generation or otherwise adopt and adhere to meaningful nutrition-based standards for foods and beverages sold in schools, such as those recommended by the Institute of Medicine.

Fourth, the Report contains many other specific recommendations for the food industry, which address the nutritional profile of product offerings, nutrition labeling, healthy messages, and marketing in schools. Finally, in light of the character licensing and extensive cross promotion of foods with films and children's television programs, the Report also recommends actions by media and entertainment companies. Included among these is a recommendation that media and entertainment companies should consider instituting their own self-regulatory initiative and working with the CBBB in this endeavor."