Plaintiffs Target Companies Marketing Junk Food to Kids
by Ed Thomas
June 1, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Two public-interest advocacy groups and two Boston-area parents have filed a notice of intent to sue Nickelodeon's parent company and Kellogg Foods in a Massachusetts court. Lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants are still negotiating to try to avoid the filing of the lawsuit over the marketing of junk food during children's programming. The notice of intent to file suit against Kellogg, the Nickelodeon network, and its owner Viacom was submitted in January following the release of a report from the Institute of Medicine connecting food product TV commercials and child health. The report showed a link between advertising aimed at kids and their unfortunate preferences for foods high in caloric content and low in nutrition.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, and Massachusetts parents Sherri Carlson and Andrew Long are the plaintiffs in the case. The two groups and the two individuals object to companies' constant marketing of food products during children's shows and want the court to put a stop to the onslaught.
The same cartoon show characters that kids are tuning in to watch are being used to sell empty them calorie food products during commercials, Long asserts. And what is being pushed to these growing youngsters, he says, is "basically junk food -- high fat, high sugar content, nutritionally poor food."
And Susan Linn of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) notes that the power of advertising over impressionable youngsters is tremendous -- wielding far more influence over them than over adults. In the Institute of Medicine's end-year 2005 study, she notes, researchers did a thorough review of all the literature on food marketing and childhood obesity, "and they came to the conclusion that food marketing affects children's food choices, their food preferences, their food requests and their diets."
Part of the reason for the powerful effect of food marketing on children, Linn points out, is that the younger viewers -- particularly those under the age of eight -- that are being targeted by food company's television ads are generally not capable of understanding that they have a choice. They do not know they can elect not to follow advertisers' suggestions, she says.
"Until the age of eight," the CCFC spokeswoman explains, "children can't understand persuasive intent; so the thought is that if they don't understand the fundamental basis of advertising, how can we expect them to defend against it?" That is why the lawsuit her group and the other plaintiffs are considering would specifically ask the court to prevent marketing through media venues aimed at children under age eight.
The plaintiffs want Kellogg, Nickelodeon, and Viacom enjoined from marketing to children under eight in certain media venues and with certain products. Dr. Linn says the companies are currently in negotiation with her group and the other parties to try to work out a compromise agreement.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
