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

Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents
availability with purchase of a children’s meal. Frequently, cross-promotions involved rebate
offers that were advertised on product packaging and on point-of-sale displays.
c. Re w a R d i n g ch i l d R e n a n d Te e n s w i T h PR e m i u m s
A key feature of a cross-promotional campaign was nearly always the distribution to
children of toys, stickers, games, or other items, often found in packages and QSR children’s
meals, or available with proofs of purchase or by inputting a package code on a food product
website. QSRs in particular were apt to use toys linked to cross-promotions of new movies,
popular children’s television programming, or classic children’s toys as a means of marketing
their “kids’ meals” to children. Toys were generally sold in a series, encouraging children to
purchase multiple meals so they could collect each separate toy. Premiums included figurines of
film and television characters, plush toys, toy trucks and cars, puzzles and games, including toys
for outdoor activities, and functional objects such as calculators, rulers, watches, wristbands, and
water bottles. Restaurants also frequently structured their cross-promotions to include toys that
would appeal to both girls and boys, such as a promotion for one quick-service “kids’ meal” that
gave children the option of a G.I. Joe toy or a Bratz toy, and another promotion that offered the
option of a Polly Pocket fashion doll or a toy Hummer vehicle.
Packaged food companies also frequently distributed thematically linked premium items
with their products. Examples included trading cards, back-to-school kits, movie posters,
stickers, iron-ons, video games, activity books, bobble-head dolls, toys, pencil toppers, bowls
and utensils, personalized license plates, key chains, and figurines, which typically carried
branding for the media property and/or the food brand.
For many DVD releases, food and media companies partnered to offer cash back or a certain
quantity of free product when consumers purchased the DVD and/or the food item. Rebates and
discounts were also available for cross-promotion themed toys. Companies that were engaged
in cross-promotions with theme parks and other youth venues provided discounts on tickets or
admission.
Other premiums were distributed to children and teens through sweepstakes. 61 Cross-
promotions with films might offer a sweepstakes to win a trip to the film premiere, or to win a
family vacation related to the movie’s storyline. An example of a sweepstakes prize created to
appeal to children ages 12 and under was a contest to win a dream tree house offered as part of a
children’s frozen meal product’s cross-promotion with the children’s film Open Season. Others
were geared toward adolescents, including a candy company’s cross-promotion contest with the
movie Pirates of the Caribbean that offered cash prizes, iTunes downloads, and screensavers.
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