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

Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents
for competitive foods and beverages sold in schools, outside the school meal program. These
developments are discussed below. 93
1. Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative
One major development since the 2006 Report was the Children’s Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative (Initiative), established by the CBBB in November 2006. The Initiative is
an effort to change the mix of food and beverage advertising messages directed to children under
12 to encourage healthier eating and lifestyles.
The Initiative has five central components. Participating companies must:
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Devote at least 50% of their advertising directed to children under 12 (on television
and radio, in print, and on the Internet) to promote “healthy dietary choices” and/or
to messages that encourage good nutrition or healthy lifestyles;
Limit products depicted in interactive games directed to children under 12 to healthy
dietary choices, or incorporate healthy lifestyle messages into the game;
Reduce their use of third-party licensed characters in advertising that does not
promote healthy dietary choices or healthy lifestyles;
Not engage in product placement of food and beverage products in editorial and
entertainment content directed to children under 12; and
Not advertise food or beverage products in elementary schools.
To date, 13 food and beverage companies have joined the Initiative: Burger King, Cadbury
Adams, Campbell Soup Company, The Coca-Cola Company, ConAgra Foods, General Mills,
The Hershey Company, Kellogg Company, Kraft Foods, Mars, McDonald’s USA, PepsiCo,
and Unilever United States. These companies are estimated to have accounted for more than
two-thirds of food and beverage television advertising directed to children in 2004, 95 and all
but one provided a response to the FTC’s Special Order. 96 Each participating company has
submitted a pledge, setting forth the specifics of its commitment, which has been approved by
the CBBB. 97 Appendix E to this Report contains tables summarizing the details of each pledge.
The Commission encourages other industry members to join the Initiative.
Four companies – Cadbury Adams, Coca-Cola, Hershey, and Mars – have pledged not
to direct any advertising to children under 12. The other nine companies have each adopted
minimum nutritional standards for foods and beverages they will market to children under 12,
and have pledged that 100% of their child-directed advertising will be limited to qualifying
“healthy dietary choices,” 98 or, in the case of one company, may also include healthy lifestyle
messages. 99 These commitments go beyond the Initiative’s requirement that at least 50% of
child-directed ads promote healthy dietary choices or contain healthy lifestyle messages.
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