Post: Junk Food Lawsuit is a Step to Fight Childhood Obesity
Junk Food Lawsuit is a Step to Fight Childhood Obesity
Today, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood joined with the Center for Science and the Public Interest and parents from Massachusetts to announce our intent to file suit against Viacom and Kellogg to stop them from marketing junk food to young children. The lawsuit isn't about money. It's about protecting children's health. It will ask a Massachusetts court to prohibit the companies from marketing foods of poor nutritional value to audiences where 15 percent or more of the audience is under age eight, and to cease marketing junk foods through web sites, toy giveaways, contests, and other techniques aimed at that age group.
There is no moral, ethical, or social justification for marketing junk food to children. Childhood obesity is a major public health problem. Overweight children are at risk for a number of serious medical problems including type 2 diabetes; yet children continue to be inundated with ads for foods high in fat, sugar, salt, and calories.
We know that children's food choices and purchase requests are significantly influenced by marketing. We know that children are more vulnerable to marketing than adults, and that young children are particularly vulnerable. We know that it is inherently unfair for children under the age of eight to be targets for advertising, because they do not have the cognitive wherewithal to understand its persuasive intent. Given what we know, it is unconscionable that Viacom and Kellogg continue to market directly and aggressively to our youngest and most impressionable children.
It's not just that Viacom and Kellogg market to children. They are leaders in the field. Their brands infiltrate nearly every aspect of children's lives. Television commercials and Internet advertising combine with brand licensing, in-school marketing, promotions, contests, and advergames to sabotage parents' best efforts to raise healthy children, turning kids into miniature lobbyists for products such as SpongeBob Squarepants Wild Bubble-Berry Pop Tarts and Dora the Explorer Fruit Snacks.
Children have the right to grow up, and parents have the right to raise them, without being undermined by commercial interests. For over 30 years, public health advocates have urged companies to stop marketing junk food to children. Even as rates of childhood obesity have soared, neither Viacom nor Kellogg have listened. And now the stakes are too high. We can no longer stand by as our children's health is sacrificed for corporate profits.
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There are 3 replies to this post
Date: January 19, 2006
If your kid is obese, who is feeding him? These kids are eating these foods because someone is putting it in front of them.
Why do eight year old have such a choice in how much junk food they eat? Where do they get the money to buy this food for themselves? Are corporations giving mass amounts of this food away for free? Are they slipping it into their lunch kits to undermine these health-aware parents that put forth good effort to balance their child's diet?
Are corporations advertising their products (that seem to sell well) really doing something wrong? Supply and demand; that's how it works. They wouldn't be marketing these things if no one was buying. Ergo, parents are buying junk food for their kids of their own will.
If you don't want your kid to eat junk food....don't buy it. Tell them "No." Kids don't like to be told "no" but it's your job to teach them how to cope with that. Maybe even teach them when and how often it would be appropriate to eat certain foods. Coach them in the ways of Self-control.
This is what being a parent is about. No one else is going to do it for you.
Date: January 19, 2006
This should be even easier than controlling the video games you want your kids to buy: I don't care how many commercials kids see, ultimately it's their parents who go to the supermarket and decide which foods to bring home. I have even less sympathy for parents who complain about the marketing of junk food than for those who complain about entertainment media. It is entirely up to you to not have chips, candy, and soda in your house if you don't want your kids eating it.
Of course, we must regulate something that invariably boils down to individual decision. Even in school, kids generally have a choice of foods, they don't HAVE to choose the unhealthy ones (as a former high school wrestler, I always avoided these). If people want to put themselves at risk for heart attacks and diabetes, it should not be up to anyone but their families to say they can't. This is another example of "government small enough to fit in your bedroom"-or, in this case, your kitchen.
Date: January 20, 2006
I'm glad to see there are at least two people who feel this way. You can read my rant agreeing with you in spirit, here.
Link: http://www.dadtalk.net