Focus Area: Food Marketing

Food Marketing to Children Through Toys: Response of Restaurants to the First U.S. Toy Ordinance

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Santa Clara County, California was the first U.S. jurisdiction to implement an ordinance that prohibits the distribution of toys and other incentives to children with meals, foods, or beverages that do not meet minimal nutrition criteria. This paper examines how ordinance-affected restaurants changed their children’s menus, child-directed marketing, and toy distribution practices relative to non-affected More

Simplifying Caloric Labeling on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages to Reduce Consumption of Excess Calories

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Providing easily understandable caloric information may be a low-cost strategy for lowering overall caloric intake among groups at high risk for obesity, particularly Black and Hispanic adolescents ages 12 to 18. The aims of the study are to: 1) examine if providing caloric information on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) significantly reduces the frequency and volume of More

The New Age of Food Marketing: How Companies are Targeting and Luring Our Kids – and What Advocates Can Do About It

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This report provides a snapshot of five categories of marketing tactics used by fast food, snack food, and soft drink companies to target children and adolescents. These categories include: 1) creating immersive environments; 2) infiltrating social networks; 3) location-based and mobile marketing; 4) collecting personal data; and 5) studying and triggering the subconscious. Descriptions of More

Comparing Front-of-Package Nutrition Labeling Systems

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The provision of nutrition information on food packaging is one strategy to help consumers make food choices. The federal Nutrition Labeling and Education Act enacted in 1990 requires that almost all packaged foods bear a Nutrition Facts panel which includes information such as serving size, calories, and certain nutrients. Despite the availability of this information, More

Issue Brief: Reining in Pester Power Food and Beverage Marketing

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This legal issue brief focuses on “pester power” food and beverage marketing, in which young children are targeted by marketers in an effort to get them to encourage their parents to purchase products for them. In the brief, pester power marketing is analyzed under existing state consumer protection laws and two primary legal theories: (1) More

Major Findings from 50-State Survey of State Consumer Protection Law to Limit Junk Food Marketing to Children

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This report summarizes findings from a 50-state survey of state consumer protection laws to identify key statutes that hold promise to protect children when they are the targets of marketing for unhealthy food and beverage marketing. The authors apply a consumer protection legal framework by dividing children’s food and beverage marketing into three categories: a) More

Industry Progress to Market a Healthful Diet to American Children and Adolescents

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In a 2005 report, Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity, an IOM expert committee concluded that prevailing food and beverage marketing practices did not support a healthful diet and provided recommendations to guide diverse stakeholders to promote a healthful diet to children and adolescents. This paper reviews the available evidence between December More

Analyzing the Legal Authority of State Attorneys General to Limit Unfair and Deceptive Digital Food Marketing to Children

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Food marketing that employs computers and mobile devices to engage young people has exploded in recent years and can directly target and geo-locate children, often without parental knowledge. State Attorneys General (AGs) have authority to protect the public from Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices (UDAP). Digital marketing that bypasses parents and is designed to More