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

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Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents Online promotions also commonly involved content on a partner website, such as a media company’s website for the licensed film or television program. As part of their cross-promotions, food companies placed banner, skyscraper, and pop-up ads on partner websites, and often the media company and food company sites hyperlinked to each other’s related content. In some cases, media partners streamed video ads for the food products on their websites or hosted online games incorporating the food products. Food companies also paid unrelated third-party websites to run banner ads for their child- and teen-directed cross-promotions. One QSR offered codes on its company website that could be used to access additional content on partner websites or console-based video games tied to the cross-promotion. pr o m o t I o n v I a a pa r t n e r w e b s I t e: For a cross-promotion for its television character Danny Phantom, Nick.com featured sponsored logos and streaming video ads for a children’s frozen meal product. Banner ads directed children to the “FUN GAMES” on the food product website, promoted a contest on the food site to win a Danny Phantom video game, and told children to “look for these meals in your grocer’s frozen food section.” In addition, the frozen meal product served as a sponsor of Nick.com’s New Game of the Week, which enabled the food company to display a branded billboard ad while Nick.com’s online video game loaded and to have banner ads and a product logo visible during game play. e. ed i b l e cR o s s-PR o m o T i o n a l iT e m s There were many examples of food products with “limited edition” line extensions devoted specifically to the cross-promoted movie, television show, cartoon character, toy, or website. Such products included candy, canned soups, pastas, breakfast cereals, snack crackers, cookies, fruit snacks, snack cakes, toaster pastries, cereal bars, yogurt, children’s frozen meals, and frozen waffles shaped like or co-branded with licensed characters from television shows or motion pictures popular with children or adolescents. Sometimes, the food itself was imprinted with the cross-promotion. For example, one snack chip brand was imprinted with trivia questions related to cross-promotions with films, including The Chronicles of Narnia and Spider-Man 3, and other media properties. f. ca s e sT u d i e s Cross-promotions were widespread in 2006, tying foods and beverages in all of the covered categories to about 80 movies, television shows, and animated characters that appeal primarily to 36
Food Marketing Activities Directed to Children and Adolescents youth. Two examples of movies that were cross-promoted with a wide variety of food products were Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman Returns. Cross-promotions with these films used the full range of promotional techniques, and were directed to both children and teens. i. Pirates of the Caribbean In July 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest was released in cinemas across the country with an MPAA rating of PG-13. 62 To coincide with the film’s release, food and beverage companies and restaurants ran cross-promotions involving a range of foods, including QSR children’s meals, fruit, frozen waffles, fruit snacks, breakfast cereals, popcorn, lunch kits, and candy directed to children and adolescents. Advertisements took the form of television and in-theater ads, Internet advergames, specially marked packaging, limited edition line extensions inspired by the movie, premiums, prizes, and in-store displays. One QSR cross-promotion featured the Pirates movie on the restaurant’s “kids’ meal” packaging and promoted movie-related toys (“loot”) via in-store and drive-thru posters. Packaging for a candy brand displayed company animated spokescharacters dressed as pirates and characters from the Pirates movie, and some packages were designed to look like swords. Consumers who bought certain breakfast cereals or frozen waffles could mail in for a skull- shaped bowl or a bandana, and other packages offered free movie popcorn or provided a skull strobe light key chain as an in-pack premium. A produce company created special in-store displays and tags for pineapples and bananas to promote the movie and direct consumers to a website where visitors could “plunder” rooms and get free movie-related holiday posters. Similarly, the website for a children’s lunch kit product described the in-pack premiums and the chance to play advergames related to the movie. A cereal company’s branded online environment for children promoted Pirates on the marquis of the town’s virtual movie theater. Packaging and point-of-sale displays for candies promoted a Pirates sweepstakes for a cash prize. A QSR cross-promotion included a “Search for the Golden Treasure” game in which kids’ meal purchasers could instantly win a trip to Disney Parks. The website for a popcorn brand featured a Pirates cross-promotion, in which consumers could enter the UPC number from the product package to win a prize. One candy company created limited edition candy products, including “White Chocolate Pirate Pearls” (featured in a television ad in which an actor from Pirates talked to company animated spokescharacters), “Shipwreck Treasure Mix” (in which “sea green” candies turned gold in your mouth), and “Jack’s Gems” (printed with pirate-themed images, like a skull and 37
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION Marketing
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Report Contributors Bureau of Consu
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