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

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Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents IV. Assessment of Food Company Health Initiatives and Recommendations In addition to requesting expenditure and activity data, the Commission’s Special Order asked reporting companies to identify and describe all company policies, programs, initiatives, or activities undertaken or implemented between January 1, 2006 and the date of response, to encourage healthy eating and lifestyle choices by children and adolescents. With this request, the Commission sought information to evaluate the extent to which the companies had taken steps to implement the recommendations from the 2006 Report on the 2005 FTC/HHS Workshop on Marketing, Self-Regulation & Childhood Obesity. In the 2006 Report, the Commission committed to monitor future developments in food marketing to children and to “issue a follow- up report assessing the extent to which positive, concrete measures have been implemented and identifying what, if any, additional steps may be warranted to ensure adequate progress is being made to address childhood obesity.” 88 This Section of the Report discusses the information received from the reporting companies, as well as information from public sources, about initiatives by industry, entertainment and media companies, and others, undertaken in response to the problem of childhood obesity. In addition, as promised in the 2006 Report, this Section assesses these steps and identifies additional steps that should be taken. Although the Commission is pleased to report that significant progress has been made on many fronts, room for improvement remains. The Commission encourages all relevant entities to continue and expand their efforts, particularly in the areas identified below. A. The 2005 Workshop on Marketing, Self-Regulation & Childhood Obesity and the 2006 Report As noted in Section I, the FTC and HHS jointly convened a two-day Workshop on Marketing, Self-Regulation & Childhood Obesity in July 2005. Participants included government officials, health experts, consumer advocates, and representatives of the food and beverage and media industries. The goal of the Workshop was to focus attention on the positive initiatives that all the participants could take to encourage healthier eating and lifestyles, particularly among the nation’s youth. As discussed in the April 2006 Report, the Workshop yielded a number of important findings. Some food and beverage companies had already undertaken steps to address the problem of childhood obesity, including introducing new products that are lower in calories and more nutritious, some of which are specifically targeted to children; using smaller packaging 60
Assessment of Food Company Health Initiatives and Recommendations sizes to help consumers with portion control; using labeling icons and seals to provide nutrient information to consumers; and highlighting nutrition and healthy lifestyles in their advertising, including through the use of licensed characters that are popular with children. 89 In addition, two companies committed to shift their advertising to children to products meeting certain nutrition criteria. 90 The 2006 Report contained a series of recommendations for the food marketing industry, including suggestions for self-regulatory initiatives to address the ways in which food is marketed to children, and encouraged food marketers to: • • • • • • Increase product innovation and reformulation, especially for products marketed to children, to offer more products that are lower in calories and more nutritious; Expand their use of product packaging to help consumers control portion sizes and calories, by offering smaller portions and single-serving packages and packaging nutritious, lower-calorie products in ways that are more appealing to children; Explore the effectiveness of labeling initiatives to help consumers identify lowercalorie, more nutritious foods; Improve the nutritional profile of foods marketed to children; Explore ways to educate consumers about nutrition and fitness; and Improve the nutritional quality of “competitive” foods and beverages sold in schools. 91 The 2006 Report also encouraged media and entertainment companies to continue to explore ways to disseminate educational messages to children and their parents about nutrition and fitness, and to review and revise their practices with respect to licensing popular children’s television and movie characters for use in food advertising. 92 B. Developments Since the 2005 Workshop and 2006 Report Since the Workshop and subsequent Report, food and beverage companies, and others, have responded to the problem of childhood obesity in a number of ways, including working to implement the 2006 recommendations. Their efforts have yielded significant developments, including establishment of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative; development of new and reformulated foods and beverages with improved nutritional profiles; increased offerings of snacks and other foods in smaller portions and single-serving packages; various labeling initiatives designed to help consumers identify “better for you” foods or to better convey nutrition information to consumers; support for public education initiatives to promote nutrition and healthy lifestyles; and the launch of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Guidelines 61
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