"Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing" (PDF)

12
Interactive Food & Beverage Marketing | Setting the Stage
• Working with former President Bill Clinton, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadbury
Schweppes announced an agreement in May 2006 to stop selling their sweetened
soft drink brands in elementary and middle schools. 19
• In November 2006, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, a self-regulatory body
of the Council of Better Business Bureaus that oversees children’s advertising,
announced revisions in its guidelines, including the addition of disclosure
requirements for “advergames” and other forms of marketing that blur the distinction
between editorial content and advertising, and thus might be misleading
to children 12 and under. 20
• That same month the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National
Advertising Review Council (NARC) announced the launch of a new Children’s
Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, “a voluntary self-regulation program
with 10 of the largest food and beverage companies as charter participants.”
The purpose of the new effort is to “shift the mix of advertising messaging to
children to encourage dietary choices and healthy lifestyles.” 21
• The Department of Health and Human Services, the Ad Council, Dreamworks
SKG, and Nickelodeon are launching a series of public service advertisements
featuring the characters from the movie Shrek. The February 2007 White House
event announcing the initiative included a who’s who of major food and beverage
company heads, representing General Mills, Coca-Cola, Kraft, Kellogg’s,
McDonald’s, Subway, and others. 22