Promo - January 2009 - (Page 29)

Regulatory so, the behavioral advertising guidelines will be on the negotiating table.” HEY KIDS! In the matter of advertising to kids, the most significant regulatory development of 2008 was probably the FTC’s report, “Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents,” a snapshot published in July 2008 of the ways and means spent on selling food products to U.S. kids in 2006—the early days of the effort to stem childhood obesity. But that bygone pub date doesn’t make the report old news, Kraft Foods Global senior counsel Sharon Kohn told the Promotion Marketing Association law conference in November. “This is a living, breathing document for those of us in the food industry, and I think people in other industries will begin to feel its impact too,” she said. “It’s just the beginning of where the FTC is going.” That journey is leading the agency to spread the responsibility for childhood obesity, and for finding its solution, widely among involved parties: not just food companies, but parents, schools, health care and the media. Kohn said that in a November meeting with the members of the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), FTC commissioner Jon Leibowitz stressed this broad approach to food marketing solutions. “It was very clear that the primary concern of the FTC is that food companies start thinking more expansively about what they consider food marketing to kids,” she said. “They want us to consider all marketing and promotional tactics: packaging, POS, billboards, pre-movie ads.” The aim is to get the same healthyfoods commitment in unmeasured media that the CFBAI called for in measured channels. Other FTC concerns on the topic of kids’ marketing include setting standards and guidelines for advertising anything—not just food, Kohn pointed out—to children under 12, and the need to integrate the media and entertainment companies more directly into fighting child obesity. Measures to do that include self-imposed limits on the use of licensed characters and uniform standards for advertising placements. “I think the media and entertainment companies are the next frontier in childhood obesity,” Kohn said. “I think the pressure is going to increase on them to really limit what food products are advertised in connection with, or on, their licensed characters and properties.” At the same time as Kohn’s presentation, a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that banning fast-food TV advertising could cut U.S. childhood obesity by 18%. Eliminating the tax deduction for fast-food ads would reduce the overweight young population by about 5%. While no one expects to see those policies enacted, the findings do strengthen the link between marketing food and overeating in those 18 and younger. As for what’s next for the FTC’s involvement with marketing to kids and, specifically, with food marketing, Kohn said marketers can expect an activist Congress and an activist FTC this year. The CFBAI, which is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, will hold another meeting this summer to take another snapshot of food marketing practices and benchmark the industry’s progress on those 2006 stats. Kohn’s takeaway message: Given the FTC’s already broad view of who’s part of the child-obesity problem, and with watchdog groups sensing a sympathetic ear for their views in Washington, other companies in the food-marketing chain—and particularly those that supply content or media aimed at kids— had better prepare to be drawn into the obesity fight. “The FTC is going to be reaching out to more than just the food companies,” she said. “The pressure on media and entertainment companies is going to increase to help get their arms around this issue.” l P 29 january 2009 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://www.promomagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - January 2009

Promo - January 2009 Contents Editor's Note Casual Games Dr. P and the Roses Outside the Cup Geek�Chic Expresa Tu Hispanidad Jump Start Commentary The Show Must Go On Fed Up Q&A: Smart Food Agency Center Resource Center Gray Goes Green Index of Advertisers

Promo - January 2009

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