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Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents - Federal Trade ...

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4. Premiums<br />

a. Re P o R T e d ex P e n d i T u R e s<br />

The companies reported $67<br />

million <strong>to</strong> reach youth consumers<br />

through premiums, accounting for 4%<br />

of all reported youth-directed marketing<br />

expenditures. Far <strong>and</strong> away, breakfast<br />

cereals accounted for the largest<br />

expenditures on premiums. As shown in<br />

Figure II.12, cereal companies reported<br />

close <strong>to</strong> $40 million in child-directed<br />

premiums, representing 93% of all<br />

Expenditures for <strong>Marketing</strong> <strong>Food</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Children</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Adolescents</strong><br />

expenditures on premiums for the reported breakfast cereal br<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> 69% of child-directed<br />

premium expenditures across all food <strong>and</strong> beverage categories. For other food categories,<br />

companies reported no more than $4 million <strong>and</strong> as little as $450,000 on child-directed premium<br />

expenditures. Some companies explained that a cross-promotional partner, such as a <strong>to</strong>y or<br />

media company, often covered the premium costs, such as sweepstakes prizes or DVD rebates.<br />

In addition, as noted previously <strong>and</strong> explained below, the reported premium expenditures do not<br />

include the QSRs’ self-liquidating premiums (<strong>to</strong>ys), which were a large component of child-<br />

directed marketing for QSRs.<br />

b. se l f-liquidaTing PR e m i u m s<br />

The Special Order instructed companies with expenditures for premiums directed <strong>to</strong> children<br />

or adolescents <strong>to</strong> deduct payments made by consumers for the premium item. As a consequence,<br />

premiums distributed as self-liquidating promotions – where the companies’ premium costs<br />

were entirely covered by the incremental revenue generated by the promotions – would not have<br />

triggered a reportable expense. Nevertheless, such promotions can be an important, indeed a<br />

critical, component of a QSR food marketing campaign directed <strong>to</strong> children. 44<br />

According <strong>to</strong> data obtained from The NPD Group, in 2006, QSRs sold more than 1.2 billion<br />

children’s meals with <strong>to</strong>ys <strong>to</strong> children ages 12 <strong>and</strong> under, accounting for 20% of all child traffic<br />

at QSRs. As shown in Figure II.13, the ten QSR chains responding <strong>to</strong> the FTC’s Special Order<br />

(the “Select QSRs”) 45 delivered more than 900 million of those meals. For those Select QSRs,<br />

Figure II.14 illustrates that children’s meals with <strong>to</strong>ys accounted for nearly 38% of the meals<br />

served <strong>to</strong> children.<br />

Dollars (in millions)<br />

45<br />

40<br />

35<br />

30<br />

25<br />

20<br />

15<br />

10<br />

5<br />

0<br />

19<br />

40<br />

Figure II.12: Premiums<br />

Top 3 for <strong>Children</strong><br />

4 4<br />

Breakfast Cereal Snack <strong>Food</strong>s Prepared <strong>Food</strong>s &<br />

Meals<br />

10<br />

All Other

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