Published online June 1, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 6 June 2007, pp. 1256 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-0825)

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Marketing Foods and Beverages: Why Licensed Commercial Characters Should Not Be Used to Sell Healthy Products to Children: In Reply

Victor C. Strasburger, MD
Department of Pediatrics
University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Albuquerque, NM 87122

As lead author of the recent American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement "Children, Adolescents, and Advertising,"¹ I very much appreciate the authors’ endorsement and concerns. Obviously, in an ideal world, we would not advertise anything, good or bad, to children. As the authors (and our statement) noted, children under the age of 8 cannot distinguish between what is advertising and what is program content. This was the finding of the Federal Trade Commission >25 years ago when they seriously considered banning all advertising aimed at young children at that time.² Unfortunately, they could not figure out a practical way to do that. Other countries (Australia, Netherlands, Sweden), however, have figured it out, and they have lower rates of childhood obesity.³ In Britain, a ban on advertising for food or beverages that are high in fat, salt, or sugar in programming for children and teens is currently being considered.⁴ Any program that attracts an average proportion of viewers under 16 higher than in the general population would be affected, which, of course, is the way to solve the regulation problem that the Federal Trade Commission wrestled with >25 years ago.

Unfortunately, in this country, it seems that when public health comes into conflict with capitalism, the latter always wins out.⁵ Given that we have the best Congress money can buy, it seems unlikely that any significant legislation will appear anytime soon, especially because the food industry has nearly 100 different lobbying groups in Washington, DC.⁶ Only the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and a few other groups seem to be lobbying on behalf of America's children and teenagers. We are out-spent and out-gunned. As such, let's agree to work on bad advertising first and worry about the "good" advertising later. However, I agree that we should not be advertising to young children at all with either good or bad advertising.

REFERENCES

1. American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Communications. Children, adolescents, and advertising [published correction appears in Pediatrics. 2007;119:424]. Pediatrics. 2006;118 :2563 –2569[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Federal Trade Commission. In the Matter of Children's Advertising: FTC's Final Staff Report and Recommendation. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office; 1981
3. Hawkes C. Marketing Food to Children: The Global Regulatory Environment. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2004. Available at: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241591579.pdf. Accessed April 9, 2007
4. International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth & Media. New restrictions on television advertising of food and drink products to children. Newsl Child Youth Media. 2006;2. Available at: www.nordicom.gu.se/cl/publ/letter.php#New%20Restrictions%20on%20Television%20Advertising%20of%20Food%20and%20Drink%20Products%20to%20Children. Accessed April 9, 2007
5. Strasburger VC. Is there an unconscious conspiracy against teenagers in the United States? Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2006;45 :714 –717[Free Full Text]
6. Strasburger VC, Wilson BJ, Jordan A. Children, Adolescents, & the Media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2007

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PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2007 by the American Academy of Pediatrics

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This Article Extract Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Strasburger, V. C. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Strasburger, V. C. Related Collections Adolescent Medicine Social Bookmarking                         What's this?