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

Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents
placed stickers with licensed characters on individual fruits and vegetables, which children could
then apply to special sheets to track their consumption.
Premiums often came in the form of prizes offered through sweepstakes and contests. 72 In
2006, children and teens had the opportunity to win a range of products and services, including
cash; college scholarships; magazine subscriptions; a supply of the food product; electronics
(televisions, digital music players, video game consoles, cell phones, cameras); ringtones;
toys; sports equipment and athletic apparel; sports trading cards; vacations and trips to theme
parks, extreme sporting events, and movie premieres; tickets to movies, concerts, sporting
events, and Teen Choice Awards; sports clinics and camps; music downloads; the opportunity
to appear in advertising for the product; a trip to a beach party with cast members from a show
popular with teens; and opportunities for children to participate in professional sports events
as a “sideline kid,” “kid’s captain,” “kidcaster,” bat boy/girl, or mascot, or to meet players.
Sweepstakes sometimes spanned multiple products and food categories. For example, one
company’s sweepstakes, which involved free music downloads and the chance to win bonus
songs, was touted on packaging for breakfast cereal, fruit snacks, and baked goods. As discussed
in this Section, many of these contests cross-promoted third-party media properties, and many
sweepstakes and contests were conducted online.
e. ce l e b R i T y en d o R s e m e n T s
Food and beverage companies hired celebrity actors, athletes, singers, and musical groups
to serve as endorsers for their products in advertisements and at events, on packaging and point-
of-sale materials, and in sweepstakes and contests. Whereas characters from popular television
programs and movies were licensed for promotions to both children and teens, celebrity
endorsers were used almost exclusively in marketing directed to teens and tweens. In 2006,
a milk marketer’s Internet-based teen-directed promotional campaign included celebrity milk
mustache ads by athletes David Beckham, Alex Rodriguez, and Sasha Cohen; singers Beyoncé
Knowles, Kelly Clarkson, and Carrie Underwood; and actors Mischa Barton and Raven Simone.
Celebrity endorsers were featured in print ads, on the campaign website and MySpace page, in
banner ads on third-party websites, and on posters used in schools; celebrities also served as
judges in the organization’s Scholar Athlete Milk Mustache of the Year contest. The marketer
auctioned a trip to the David Beckham Soccer Academy on the campaign website.
One candy company reported having a celebrity gold card program, in which celebrities
could sign up to receive samples of new products and branded apparel; celebrities were
encouraged to use these items for parties or travel, or as donations to charity events. Various
candy companies used musical performers Jesse McCarthy, the Jonas Brothers, and the Black
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