The naked truth about kids’ food advertising

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It was an Emperor’s New Clothes moment for the US food industry last week,

when it was revealed that a major initiative touting its responsible

advertising to kids actually allows promotion of many unhealthy foods. Is

anyone really surprised?

As in the fairytale – in which everyone praises the emperor’s sumptuous new

clothes without daring to point out that he is, in fact, naked – the

Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) has long been

commended for its vocal stance on restricting direct advertising of

unhealthy foods to children, but it seems no one has looked very hard at the

substance of its claim.

The 17 companies that are CFBAI members have vowed *“to shift the mix of

advertising messaging directed at children to encourage healthier dietary

choices and healthier lifestyles.” *The initiative specifies that

advertising should not be directed to children under 12 unless foods meet

government standards defining the term *“healthy” *or the American Heart

Association’s HeartCheck program criteria. Personally, I would like to see a

ban on all advertising directed primarily to children, but the CFBAI program

seemed like a good compromise.

So when a new study last week revealed that of 58 products made by companies

that participate in the initiative, 49 did not meet these standards,

industry should have been blushing.

Take a look at some of the

products<http://www.bbb.org/us/storage/0/Shared%20Documents/Sept.%202010%20produ\

ct%20list.pdf>that

qualify under the scheme as healthy enough to be advertised as healthy

options for children under 12: there are cookies, desserts, sugary cereals,

pizza, even Burger King hamburgers. What’s the point in having a

self-regulatory system if its standards are this lax?

Now, I don’t doubt that CFBAI members, like other key players in the food

industry, have made great strides to reformulate their products to contain

less added sugar, less sodium and less saturated fat, and they should be

commended for those efforts. A program such as the CFBAI has great potential

to shift product formulation and have a positive effect on children’s diets,

but its standards need to be strict – and strictly enforced.

The CFBAI assesses program compliance every year, and its latest report

found that more than half (52 percent) of the cereals that participants

advertised to children contained 10 grams of sugar or less, with some

product levels down from 15 to 16 grams per serving before the initiative

began. This is great news and industry should be applauded for taking so

much sugar out of kids’ diets.

But that also means that nearly half (48 percent) of cereals from companies

taking part in the program contain more than ten grams of sugar per serving.

Remember, these are just the ones that the program allows to be advertised

directly to young children.

In other areas, the initiative has greater success: Its compliance report

claims that about a third of participants’ television advertising directed

toward children advertised a product containing at least a half serving of

vegetables or fruit; a third included milk or yogurt; and 27 percent of

commercials were for meals that provided a half serving of whole grains.

The scheme needs to build on those numbers, and cut out advertising of foods

clothed in only the flimsiest of claims. If it can really live up to its

promise to shift food advertising toward healthier options, perhaps it can

prevent more red faces.

*Caroline - is a journalist specializing in the food industry.

Prior to completing a Masters degree in journalism at Edinburgh's Napier

University, she had spent five years working as a chef.*

--

Ortiz, MS, RD

*The FRUGAL Dietitian* <http://www.thefrugaldietitian.com>

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