Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: FTC Releases “Follow-Up” Report on Food Marketing to Children, (Dec 28, 2012)

In a follow-up to the FTC’s 2008 report to Congress on food marketing to children, the agency has released “A Review of Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents: Follow-Up Report,” gauging the progress industry has made since first launching self-regulatory efforts to promote healthier food choices to kids. The report was announced on December 21.

The report provides a picture of how food companies allocated $1.79 billion on marketing to youth ages 2-17 in 2009, according to the agency. The FTC found that overall spending was down 19.5 percent from 2006, with most of that decrease coming from less spending on television ads to youth. At the same time, food companies stepped up their spending to market to children and teens in new media, such as online, mobile, and viral marketing, by 50 percent.

New to this report is a detailed analysis of the nutritional profile of foods marketed to youth. The analysis suggests that industry self-regulation resulted in modest nutritional improvements from 2006 to 2009 within specific food categories heavily marketed to youth, such as cereals, drinks, and fast food kids’ meals.

According to the report, food company participation in self-regulation has increased, but some companies with significant marketing to children still have not joined the effort. The entertainment industry lags farther behind. With a few exceptions, media companies have not limited licensing of children’s characters and placement of ads during children’s programming to more nutritious foods.

News: Advertising ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews