Obesity
Given the growing rate of childhood obesity, the pervasiveness of marketing to children and their unique vulnerability to commercial persuasion, it is essential to explore the media messages about nutrition that young people receive and to engage in a proactive, multi-faceted advocacy agenda to effect change.
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Children are a primary target audience for advertisers, with companies spending $15 billion a year on marketing to children under the age of 12, twice the amount they spent just 10 years ago. Children under the age of eight do not recognize the persuasive intent of ads and tend to accept them as accurate and unbiased. Further, a 30-second commercial can influence brand preferences in children as young as two years old.
While there are a confluence of factors that contribute to childhood obesity, media is clearly one of them.
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One outcome of Children Now's recent conference was the establishment of a bipartisan Joint Task Force on Media and Childhood Obesity led by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin (R), and FCC Commissioners Deborah Tate (R) and Michael Copps (D). One of the goals of the task force is to explore the voluntary steps that the private sectors can take to combat childhood obesity.
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Several children's media companies have announced plans to limit their use of licensed characters to market certain food and beverage products.
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In November 2006, the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) announced the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative with the goal of shifting "the mix of advertising messaging to children to encourage healthier dietary choices and healthy lifestyles." Twelve of the nation's largest food and beverage companies have written pledges detailing their plans to meet the initiative goals, including Cadbury Adams, USA, LLC; Campbell Soup Company; The Coca-Cola Company; General Mills, Inc.; The Hershey Company; Kellogg Company; Kraft Foods Inc; Mars, Inc.; McDonald's USA; PepsiCo, Inc.; and Unilever United States.
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The Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report calling on the food, beverage and entertainment industries to voluntarily develop and implement guidelines for advertising and marketing directed at children and youth.
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In December 2006, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement regarding children's exposure to ads and the impact such exposure may have on children's health, including childhood obesity.
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In July 2005, Children Now testified before the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Health and Human Services at a workshop on marketing, self-regulation and childhood obesity.
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The American Psychological Association convened a task force to conduct an extensive review of the research literature in the area of advertising media and its effects on children.
