Kids see commercials for junk food everyday, and more kids are overweight than ever before. These two undisputed facts are driving debates about how much food marketing is to blame for the obesity epidemic -- and what to do about it. Lately, a few food and media companies have unveiled new marketing strategies to promote healthier foods and downplay the junk. Disney and Kraft Foods are two examples. But advocacy groups complain that not enough is being done. Some say the time has come for new rules and laws requiring companies to change the way they do business.
Today, the call for change became louder yet. The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation released new data on the quantity and type of food commercials seen by children and then hosted a forum on the topic. I sat in the audience, witnessing an increasingly agitated debate, as:
- A parent of four named Brent Reynolds berated the advertising industry and, in particular, a representative from PepsiCo for moving too slowly.
- Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, chastised food marketers for creating such compelling and attractive advertisements for junk food while not doing anything to promote healthy foods -- a situation, she said, "that almost makes us parents out to be liars."
- J. Michael McGinnis, the lead author of report on food marketing published by the Institutes of Medicine in 2006, reminded everyone that his report called for major changes in food promotion by next year.
- Several speakers said they worried that, under a self-regulation paradigm, advertising would only be artificially improved by showing active lifestyles instead of healthy eating. "We could have kids on skateboards eating Big Macs, and that would qualify" as a "healthy" message, said Dale Kunkel, a professor at the University of Arizona who studies issues of media and children.
Attempting to answer these charges was Nancy Green, a nutritionist and vice-president at PepsiCo, and C. Lee Peeler, president of the National Advertising Review Council. Peeler described an initiative developed late last year by 11 large companies -- including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Hershey. These companies, Peeler said, have committed to shifting the mix of their advertising to focus on healthy foods and healthy lifestyles. They will be submitting their new plans by the end of the summer and the Council for Better Business Bureaus will monitor whether their actions live up to their pledges.
As a mother and journalist writing about media and children, I told Peeler I was eager to see those pledges -- and even more curious about how they will be implemented. Then I went home to have lunch with my kids. They had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, strawberries and some left-over noodles with beef stroganoff. Today, at least, I held back on the Teddy Grahams. But there is a box of them in our pantry, and, to be honest, I couldn't tell you if it was food marketing, my children's desires, or my own taste for sweets that put them there.
3:05:35 PM 
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