DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING AND MONITORING OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE:
Children NOW Pledge Monitoring
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Transcript of Children NOW Pledge Monitoring
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Commissioned by:
Children Now
Conducted by:
Dale Kunkel, Ph.D.
Christopher McKinley, M.A.
Paul Wright, M.A.
University o Arizona
December 2009
The Impact o Industry Sel-Regulation on the Nutritional
Quality o Foods Advertised on Television to Children
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ii
Strong scientic evidence shows that the marketing o unhealthy oods to children is a signicant risk
actor contributing to childhood obesity. In 2006, amidst growing public concern about this issue, the
ood and beverage industry responded with the sel-regulatory Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising
Initiative. This initiative aims to signicantly improve the nutritional quality o ood and beverage products
advertised to children.
Children Now commissioned this study to analyze the efectiveness o the Childrens Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative.
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Executive Summary 3Background 5
Report Objectives 6
Key Findings 6
Conclusion 7
Complete Report 9Background 11
Method 13
Results 15
Conclusion 34
Appendix A 39
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Executive Summary
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The IOMs conclusions conrmed the role o
ood and beverage marketing practices in
the childhood obesity crisis, subsequently in-
creasing attention to the issue among public
health ocials and childrens advocates. In re-
sponse to this growing pressure or change,
the ood and beverage industry responded
with a sel-regulatory program aimed at re-
ducing unhealthy ood advertising to children.
This program is known as the Childrens Food
and Beverage Advertising Initiative.
The Childrens Food and
Beverage Advertising
InitiativeIn 2006, in partnership with the Council o
Better Business Bureaus, a coalition o majorood companies announced that it would sig-
nicantly improve the nutritional quality o
oods advertised to children. The publicly
stated goal o this voluntary industry eort,
called the Childrens Food and Beverage Ad-
vertising Initiative, is to change the landscape
o child-directed advertising by encouraging
healthier dietary choices and healthy liestyles
in all advertising to children (Peeler, Kolish, &
Enright, 2009, p.1).
The initiative introduced the term better-or-
you to identiy the products that participating
companies had sel-selected as the healthier
ood and beverage products they would con-
tinue to advertise to children. The initiative,
however, lacked uniorm criteria speciying the
minimum nutritional standards or the bet-
ter-or-you designation. Rather, each o the
participating companies issued its own de-
tailed pledge that dened better-or-you in
its own way, resulting in substantial variabil-
ity in the nutritional criteria used rom one
company to the next.
At the time this study was conducted, 15
companies were participating in the initiative(please see page 11 or company list), in which
they publicly pledged to dramatically improve
the nutritional prole o their ood marketing to
children. One additional company (Post Foods)
has joined the initiative since then, bringing the
current number o participants to 16.
BackgroundFor the rst time in modern history, the current
generation o children may ace a lie expec-
tancy that is shorter than that o their parents.This is due to the childhood obesity epidemic.
Among the many health complications asso-
ciated with childhood obesity are the earlier
onset and growing rates o type 2 diabetes,
high blood pressure and heart disease. There
is a strong consensus that aggressive actions
are urgently needed to better deend the na-
tions children rom this growing crisis.
Numerous actors have been shown to con-
tribute to childhood obesity, including reduced
physical activity, the wider availability o nutri-
tionally poor convenience oods, ewer amilymeals and advertising that promotes unhealthy
oods. This study addresses ood advertising to
children, a actor o particular interest because
it impacts virtually every child in the nation.
Children are exposed to tens o thousands o
commercials each year on television alone, in-
cluding ads or ast ood, sugared cereals and
sugared beverages. Most o these oods are
high in added sugar, salt and at, and they are
unhealthy when consumed on a regular basis.
In 2004, Congress commissioned the Institute
o Medicine (IOM) o the National Academies
to evaluate the role o ood marketing as a con-tributing actor to childhood obesity. The IOM
report, released in 2006, reviewed all exist-
ing scientic studies and determined that ood
and beverage advertising targeted at children
inuences their product preerences, requests
and diet. It concluded that ood and bever-
age marketing practices geared to children
and youth are out o balance with healthul
diets, and contribute to an environment that
puts their health at risk (Institute o Medicine,
2006, p. 10).
Given the severity o the childhood obesityepidemic, the IOM recommended that the
ood and beverage industry shit its market-
ing practices to children away rom products
high in added sugar, salt and at, and toward
healthy products that children can saely
consume as part o their everyday diet. To un-
derscore the importance o this goal, the IOM
specied that i the industry proved unable
to achieve such reorm voluntarily, Congress
should intervene with legislation.
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
Roughly one-third (31%) o the ood ads rom
companies participating in the initiative are
or Slow products, which have moderate nu-
tritional value but should be consumed only
sometimes, at most several times a week.
Healthy ood advertising is invisible.
Ads or truly healthy Go products, such as veg-
etables, ruits, whole grain breads and other
products that can be consumed anytime,
account or less than 1% o all advertising rom
participating companies. There is no increase
in the proportion o ads or healthy products
in 2009 rom 2005, beore the initiative went
into eect.
It would require 10 hours o viewing childrens
television programs to nd one healthy ood
ad. During that same period, a child viewerwould see 55 ads or Whoa oods and 20 ads
or Slow oods. In summary, ewer than one in
100 ood ads promote a healthy product that
can be eaten saely on a daily basis.
Licensed characters are increasingly used to
promote nutritionally poor ood and bever-
age products to children.
Research shows that licensed characters are
particularly eective at inuencing children
because children trust the characters they see
in program content. Consequently, the Insti-
tute o Medicines report recommended thatlicensed characters should be used only or
the promotion o oods and beverages that
support healthul diets. Yet companies par-
ticipating in the initiative have nearly doubled
their use o licensed characters over the past
our years, rom 8.8% in 2005 to 15.2% in 2009,
and roughly hal o all ads with such charac-
ters (49.4%) are or nutritionally poor Whoa
products.
Despite the industrys sel-regulatory pledges,
which speciy that participating companies will
only use licensed characters to promote their
better-or-you products, none o the health-
ier oods and beverages they marketed with
licensed characters qualiy as a Go product
that children can consume every day.
More than one-quarter o all ood and bev-
erage advertising to children originates rom
companies that do not participate in the
initiative.
Report ObjectivesThe Impact o Industry Sel-Regulation on the
Nutritional Quality o Foods Advertised on
Television to Children provides the rst inde-pendent, comprehensive evaluation o the
Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising Ini-
tiative and its impact on the childrens ood
marketing environment on television. Com-
missioned by Children Now and conducted
by Dale Kunkel, Ph.D., and colleagues at the
University o Arizona, this research report ex-
amines the ood advertising environment
during childrens television programming.
The report compares advertising patterns in
2005, several years beore the Childrens Food
and Beverage Advertising Initiative went into
eect, to those in 2009, ater the initiative wasin place. The data rom this report indicate the
extent to which this initiative has succeeded at
achieving the goals specied by the Institute
o Medicine in 2006.
One o the key measures Dr. Kunkel used to
assess the impact o the Childrens Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative is the U.S. De-
partment o Health and Human Services
Go-Slow-Whoa ood rating system. This rame-
work is part o the We Can! (Ways to Enhance
Childrens Activity & Nutrition) program, de-
signed to help parents make healthier choices
or their children and amilies. Please reer to
the Appendix o this report or inormation on
the Go-Slow-Whoa ood rating system.
Key FindingsThe majority o advertisements rom compa-
nies participating in the Childrens Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative are or nutri-
tionally poor Whoa products, which should
only be consumed on special occasions (see
Figure 1, p. 7).Despite industry claims that ood marketing
to children would be limited to healthier prod-
ucts through the initiative, this study nds that
more than two-thirds (68.5%) o all advertising
by participating companies is or oods and
beverages in the Whoa category, the lowest
category o nutritional quality. These Whoa
products should be consumed only on special
occasions, such as your birthday.
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ConclusionThe ndings in this report demonstrate that
the Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising
Initiative has not improved the overall nutrition-
al quality o ads targeting children. Moreover,
the ood and beverage industry has ailed to
meet the Institute o Medicines principal rec-
ommendation to voluntarily shit the balance
o childrens ood marketing away rom low-
nutrient, high-density oods to advertising
strategies that promote healthier oods, bev-
erages, and meal options.
The advertising environment targeting chil-
dren continues to expose them to nutritionally
poor ood products, contributing to the current
childhood obesity epidemic. Children Nows
study illustrates that the Childrens Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative has ailed to
signicantly improve this situation. As such, it
is time or our nations leaders to step orward
and help ensure a healthy ood advertising en-vironment or our children.
Across all childrens ood ads on television,
28.7% are by companies that do not partici-
pate in the Childrens Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative; thereore, their market-
ing practices to children are not guided by its
measures.
In addition, the major broadcast networks
and cable channels that deliver childrens pro-
gramming and advertising play no role in theinitiative. This creates another loophole, allow-
ing a substantial proportion o ood advertising
to children to occur, without holding it to stan-
dards regarding the nutritional quality o the
advertised products.
Under sel-regulation, overall improvement in
the nutritional quality o oods marketed on
television to children is negligible (see Figure
2, this page).
Despite calls or dramatic reorm rom public
health ocials and advocates, ood and bev-
erage advertising to children continues to be
predominated by products o poor nutrition-
al value. In 2005, prior to the inception o the
Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising Ini-
tiative, 84% o oods marketed to children were
or Whoa products. In 2009, Whoa products
have decreased only to 72.5%. Thus, at this
pace, it would take until 2017 or nutritionally
poor Whoa products to decline to only hal o
all oods marketed to children and until 2033
or them to disappear entirely.
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Complete Report
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BackgroundChildhood obesity has become one o the
most serious threats to public health. Nu-
merous actors contribute to this increasingepidemic, including reduced levels o physical
activity or many children, shiting sociological
elements that impact amily eating patterns
and the increased availability o convenience
oods with little nutritional value (Institute o
Medicine, 2005; Krishnamoorthy, Hart, & Jela-
lian, 2006). This study addresses yet another
distinct actor that contributes to childhood
obesity: television advertising that promotes
low-nutrient, high-calorie ood products to
children.
Existing research shows that childrens expo-sure to television advertising or non-nutritious
ood products is a signicant risk actor con-
tributing to childhood obesity (Institute o
Medicine, 2006; Kaiser Family Foundation,
2004; Vandewater & Cummings, 2008). In
the most comprehensive review o research
to date, the Institute o Medicine o the Na-
tional Academies concluded that television
commercials signicantly inuence childrens
ood preerences, purchase requests and
dietary intake. The act that younger children
do not comprehend the persuasive intent o
advertising messages (Calvert, 2008; Gunter,
Oates, & Blades, 2005; Kunkel et al., 2004) and
televised ood advertising has long been dom-
inated by low-nutrient, high-calorie products
(Larson & Story, 2008; Palmer & Carpenter,
2006) exacerbates concern in this area. The
IOM (2006) report summed up the situation,
observing that ood and beverage marketing
practices geared to children and youth are out
o balance with healthul diets, and contrib-
ute to an environment that puts their health
at risk (p. 374). A comparable conclusion
was reached in an earlier review o research
conducted or a similar United Kingdom gov-
ernment inquiry (Hastings et al., 2003).
Prodded by this scientic evidence, policy-
makers have devoted increasing attention to
the issue o ood marketing to children as they
seek to address the growing epidemic o child-
hood obesity. The Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) has conducted hearings and issued
reports on the topic (FTC, 2008; Holt, Ippolito,
Desrochers, & Kelley, 2007); the Federal Com-
munications Commission (FCC) hosted an
inter-governmental Task Force on Media and
Childhood Obesity (FCC, 2009); and individual
members o Congress have issued statements
reecting their concern (Harkin, 2007; Markey,
2007). Indeed, concern about the topic is not
limited to the U.S. For example, the United
Kingdom recently adopted strict governmen-
tal regulation that prohibits the advertising o
non-nutritious, or so-called junk ood, prod-
ucts during programs that attract signicant
audiences o children (Hawkes, 2007).
In an eort to respond to public concern
about the nutritional quality o the oods mar-
keted to children, a coalition o major ood
companies has collaborated with the Council
o Better Business Bureaus to establish an in-
dustry sel-regulatory ramework designed to
improve the nutritional quality o oods adver-tised to children (Council o Better Business
Bureaus, 2007). This eort has been termed
the Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising
Initiative. Among the companies participating
in the initiative are many o the nations largest
ood conglomerates. At the time this study
began in early 2009, a total o 15 companies
participated in the initiative. These include:
Burger King Corporation
Cadbury Adams USA
Campbell Soup Company
Coca-Cola Company
ConAgra Foods, Inc.
The Dannon Company
General Mills, Inc.
Hershey Company
Kellogg Company
Krat Foods, Inc.
Mars, Inc.
McDonalds USA
Nestle USA
PepsiCo, Inc.
Unilever United States
As part o the industry initiative, each company
has issued a detailed pledge o its commit-ment to limit its marketing eorts targeted
at children to healthier ood products, or in
some cases, messages that promote healthy
liestyles. It is important to note, however,
that each company denes what constitutes a
healthier ood product based on diering nu-
tritional criteria. Participating companies have
also pledged to restrict the use o licensed
characters solely to advertising or oods that
meet their specic nutritional standards or
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
healthier products, or in some cases, products
that are generically considered to be healthy
dietary choices. Proponents o industry sel-
regulation assert that this initiative should
resolve the concerns that have been raised
and neutralize any need or direct governmen-
tal regulation o ood marketing to children.
Indeed, the initiative asserts it will change the
mix o ood and beverage products advertised
to children to encourage healthier dietary
choices and healthy liestyles in an eort to
change the landscape o child-directed ad-
vertising (Peeler, Kolish, & Enright, 2009, p. 1).
This study provides an independent eval-
uation o how well industry sel-regulation
has accomplished these goals. While some
o the participating companies pledges
were announced as early as the summer o2007, others have been added more recent-
ly, and some aspects o the pledges did not
become ully operational until January 1, 2009.
Clearly, then, 2009 provides the rst oppor-
tunity to evaluate the ecacy and impact o
the Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising
Initiative on the overall marketplace o adver-
tising to children.
To pursue this research agenda, there are two
key ocuses that we scrutinize. The rst is the
issue o whether or not each company has
succeeded in ullling all o the elements o its
pledge. Evaluating this issue requires careul
measurement, given the lack o a uniorm nu-
trition standard or dening healthy oods
across the various companies. To accomplish
this, products advertised in commercials tar-
geted at children are linked to their parent
corporation and then assessed or conormity
with the applicable nutritional standards spec-
ied by that company.
A second and arguably more critical issue to
be examined is the impact o the industry ini-
tiative on the overall environment o ood
advertising to children. Not all ood companiesparticipate in the program, which means the
eorts o the initiative could be diluted by ad-
vertising or less healthy oods that originates
rom other sources (i.e., companies not partic-
ipating in the initiative). Indeed, it is important
to assess the proportion o the total volume
o ood marketing to children that is provided
by companies participating in the initiative, in
order to help evaluate its reach and impact.
Given the varying nature o the denitions o
healthier ood products that have been es-
tablished by the participating companies, it is
also critical to independently evaluate the nu-
tritional quality o the overall marketplace o
ood advertising directed at children and to
compare the patterns that are observed once
the initiative is in eect with the levels that
existed in the past. This is particularly impor-
tant because o the inclusion o oods dened
by industry as better-or-you as part o the
sel-regulatory marketing reorms. It remains
to be seen whether oods dened as better-
or-you (e.g., reduced at Oreos) are indeed
good-or-you (i.e., healthul), which is the
requisite goal o advertising reorm that seeks
to reduce childhood obesity.
This study engages both o these critical tasks.It examines a broad base o advertising con-
tained in a sample o more than 100 childrens
television programs monitored between Feb-
ruary and April o 2009. In the rst part o
the report, we present detailed inormation
about the nature and extent o ood market-
ing messages targeted at child audiences. In
the second portion o the report, we provide
an evaluation o the eectiveness o the in-
dustrys eort at sel-regulation, known as the
Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising Ini-
tiative. In examining both o these areas, we
benet rom previous studies o ood market-ing to children that we conducted in 2005 and
2007 (Kunkel, McKinley, & Stitt, 2008; Stitt &
Kunkel, 2008). These previous studies employ
sampling strategies and measures identical to
the research reported here and, thus, provide
optimal comparison points or tracking change
over time in the ood industrys advertising
practices targeted at children.
Finally, we note that this study employs a
unique measurement strategy or evaluat-
ing the nutritional quality o advertised oods.
Many previous studies that have assessed ood
advertising to children either measure producttype without any evaluation o nutritional
quality or, alternatively, report such detailed
nutritional inormation that it is dicult to draw
practical conclusions rom the evidence. The
ormer approach is clearly inadequate, partic-
ularly as marketers practices evolve toward
healthier oods. While one might reasonably
have surmised that a ast ood ad represent-
ed a non-nutritious product in the distant past,
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maximizes the representativeness o content-
based ndings.)
Childrens programs were dened as any show
with a V-chip rating o TV-Y (appropriate or
all children) or TV-Y7 (appropriate or children,ages 7 and above), or any show with an FCC
rating o E/I (educational/inormational or
children) that claims to target children under
12 years o age. The audiences or all o the
programs sampled are consistently predomi-
nated by children younger than 12.
The channels examined in the study include all
ve national broadcast networks that deliver
childrens programming: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC
and CW. In addition, two national cable net-
works that are among the largest providers
o childrens programming are also included:Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. The Disney
Channel was omitted because the network
does not present outside (i.e., non-Disney-
based) advertising and, thus, ood marketing
would likely be minimal, i not absent entirely.
The 2009 sample included a total o 139 shows,
representing 70.5 hours o childrens program-
ming across the seven networks included in the
study. The programs were recorded between
February 1, 2009, and April 15, 2009. Where
applicable, we compared our 2009 data with
ndings rom our previous studies, using iden-
tical methods and measures to analyze ood
advertising (Kunkel, McKinley, & Stitt, 2008;
Stitt & Kunkel, 2008).
MeasuresAll non-program content (see Condry, Bence,
& Scheibe, 1988) that appeared during each
childrens program was categorized by segment
type (i.e., commercial, program promotion,
public service announcement) and mea-
sured or length o time. In order to provide
context, descriptive inormation is provided at
the outset o the Results section regarding theoverall amount o time devoted to advertising.
All other data reported in the study, however,
are derived solely rom the examination o
commercials devoted to ood products.
Each ood commercial was rst categorized
by producttype. Categories were constructed
in an eort to discriminate more healthy rom
less healthy oods, while at the same time acil-
itating comparisons with previous research to
today such an ad might just as well present a
ruit plate as opposed to a burger and ries.
This underscores that the nutritional quality o
the oods advertised in each commercial must
be careully measured, rather than inerred. We
(Kunkel, McKinley, & Stitt, 2008; Stitt & Kunkel,
2008) successully employed a measurement
ramework based on a consumer-oriented nu-
tritional scheme devised by the Department
o Health and Human Services as part o the
agencys We Can! (Ways to Enhance Childrens
Activity and Nutrition) public inormation ini-
tiative. These measures simpliy the evaluation
o nutritional quality, while maintaining strong
rigor and credibility, thus maximizing the value
o the evidence produced by the study.
To summarize, this study provides a detailed
examination o the overall landscape o tele-vised ood advertising to children. It identies
changes that have occurred between 2005
and 2009. The study also assesses compli-
ance with the industry sel-regulatory program
known as the Childrens Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative. Finally, the study ana-
lyzes the impact o industry sel-regulation on
the nutritional quality o oods advertised in
the overall childrens television marketplace.
In the next section, we detail the methodology
used to conduct the research.
Method
SampleThis study examines ood advertising in a
broad base o childrens programming on
broadcast and cable television channels. The
sampling design involves the creation o two
composite days (one weekday, one Satur-
day) or each network included in the study.
Composite days are created by videotaping
programming at randomly selected times overa period o several months, until an entire days
schedule has been recreated through the com-
posite collection process or each network.
The sampling strategy captures one episode
o all childrens programming that regularly
airs between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on each
o the targeted channels. (See Stitt & Kunkel,
2008 or more detailed inormation regarding
the procedure or creating composite days, as
well as an explanation o how the technique
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
analyses o advertising to children (Barcus,
1977; Kunkel & Gantz, 1992) to represent the
predominant promotional strategy embodied
in the segment overall and is judged as a mu-
tually exclusive variable or each commercial.
Categories included: un/happiness, taste/
avor/smell, premium, unique product, popu-
larity o product and healthy product, among
others. Ads are placed in a given category i
they associate the product with the applica-
ble theme. For example, a McDonalds ad in
which Ronald McDonald jumps in a swimming
pool and is shown exercising vigorously while
playing various water activities with lots o chil-
dren would be classied as a physical activity
theme. An example o a un/happiness appeal
is an ad where children are shown going on
a scavenger hunt to nd the cereal they love,
with the ad ending with the children shown assatised upon nding and eating the cereal. An
example o a popularity theme/appeal is an ad
where a parent is shown serving the product to
a crowd o neighborhood children, all o whom
are clamoring loudly or the ood item.
Other tactics used by ood marketers to in-
crease the attractiveness o their products
to children were measured, including the use
o spokes-characters (characters associated
solely with the product, e.g., Capn Crunch,
Ronald McDonald); licensed characters/ce-
lebrity product endorsers (characters whosepopularity is not originally associated with a
ood product, e.g., Spongebob Squarepants,
Dora the Explorer); contests; and websitepro-
motions (ad identies a website address or
children to visit that is sponsored by the ood
company, e.g., www.postopia.com).
To evaluate compliance with sel-regulatory
pledges regarding the nutritional standards
and use o licensed characters, we compared
all products observed in advertising monitored
by the study to the nutritional guidelines spec-
ied by the relevant parent company, as part
o the Childrens Food and Beverage Advertis-ing Initiative. To conrm product ingredients,
we relied on inormation included in the label-
ing or each product.
Coding and ReliabilityThe classication o data or the study was ac-
complished by a group o seven coders. All
coders were trained over an eight-week period
and practiced extensively in order to achieve
the greatest extent possible. When necessary,
inormation required to properly classiy ad-
vertised products was obtained by consulting
ingredient labels on products and/or company
websites. Categories included: sugared snacks,
salted snacks, sugared beverages, sugared
cereals, pastries/wafes, pasta, ast ood/
restaurants, dairy, ruits/vegetables/100%
ruit juice, and prepackaged lunches, among
others. Applicable products were considered
sugared snacks or sugared cereals i sugar
was one o the rst three ingredients listed.
Drinks were considered sugared beverages i
they included any added sugar.
In addition to classiying ood commercials
descriptively by product type, each advertise-
ment was also categorized according to its t
with an evaluative ood rating scheme devisedby the U.S. Department o Health and Human
Services (2005). The department employs
the We Can! campaign to help parents select
a healthy diet or their children (www.nhlbi.
nih.gov/health/public/heart/obesity/wecan/
index.htm), o which the centerpiece is a ood
rating system that dierentiates products
in three categories: Go, Slow and Whoa. Go
oods are products rich in nutrients and rela-
tively low in calories. They are low in at and
added sugar and, thereore, can be consumed
almost anytime (U.S. Department o Health
and Human Services, 2005, p. 14). Examplesinclude vegetables, ruits, whole grain breads
or breakast cereals, g bars, low-at yogurt,
nonat milk and diet soda. Slow oods are
higher in at, added sugar and calories than Go
oods, and should be consumed sometimes,
at most several times a week (U.S. Depart-
ment o Health and Human Services, 2005,
p. 14). Examples include broiled hamburgers,
nuts or peanut butter, wafes, most pastas,
100% juice, sports drinks and 2% low-at milk.
Whoa oods are high in calories and low in
nutrients. They are highest in at and added
sugar, and should be consumed only once in
awhile or on special occasions and then only
in small portions (U.S. Department o Health
and Human Services, 2005, p. 14). Examples
include rench ries, ried chicken or hamburg-
ers, cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream, candy,
whole milk and regular soda.
Food commercials were also evaluated or
the advertisements primarytheme/appeal. This
measure has been used consistently in content
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has successully transormed the landscape
o ood marketing to children, rom an em-
phasis on low-nutrient, high-density ood
products to an emphasis on healthier oods
and beverages.
Amount and Type o
Televised Food Marketing to
ChildrenThe ndings reported in this section are or-
ganized according to key research questions
addressed by the study.
QUESTION: How much ood advertising is
presented during childrens programming?
Across the entire sample o 139 programs
monitored in 2009, a total o 1,819 commer-cials were observed. O these, 534 (29.5%)
were ood and beverage ads. This total base
o advertising or ood products is the ounda-
tion o all evidence presented in this report.
Table 1 compares the amount o ood ad-
vertising on broadcast and cable television.
Broadcast carried slightly higher levels o ood
advertising (8.8 ads/hour) than cable (7.2 ads/
hour) in 2009. Across both media, childrens
programming presented an average o 7.6
ood ads per hour.
The rate at which ood ads appear during chil-
drens shows has declined over the our-year
span o this study (see Table 2). Our previ-
ous research ound an average o 10.9 ood
ads per hour appeared in 2005, and 8.5 per
hour in 2007, compared to our current nding
o 7.6 per hour in 2009. Across the 2005-09
study period, the overall number o com-
mercial messages included in childrens
programming has remained relatively stable,
with means ranging rom 23.3 to 25.8 total ads
per hour. Thus, ood ads represent a smaller
proportion o the overall childrens advertis-
ing environment today than in the past, and
young viewers are likely to encounter ewer
ood ads while watching childrens programs
in 2009 as compared to recent years. This
shit is consistent with the widespread pattern
o incremental reductions in traditional mea-
sured-media advertising practices by most
marketers as they implement a corresponding
increase in online and other digital media pro-
motional eorts (Chester, 2008). Despite this
acceptable levels o inter-coder reliability
beore beginning the process o generating
data or the study. Reliability was assessed at
the end o training and roughly once per week
during the two-month period required to com-
plete all classication o data. All advertising
contained in a total o 10 randomly select-
ed hal-hour programs was evaluated by all
coders and compared using Scotts pi to de-
termine reliability coecients. The programs
contained 48 ood commercials. All variables
examined in the study achieved a level o re-
liability o .90 or above with the exception o
primary theme/appeal, which yielded agree-
ment at .76. This judgment is inherently more
subjective and interpretive, and, thus, nd-
ings involving this attribute should be viewed
with caution. Notwithstanding this one vari-
able, all measures in the study proved highlyreliable and, thus, the data can be viewed with
condence.
ResultsThis report o ndings addresses two distinct
topic areas investigated by our research. The
rst provides descriptive inormation analyzing
the amount and type o ood advertising deliv-
ered during childrens television programming.
Where possible, we compare the ndings rom
our current data gathered in 2009 with pat-
terns observed in our previous studies in 2005
and 2007. This rst section also includes an
overall assessment o the nutritional quality o
the oods marketed on television to children.
These data provide a clear picture o the en-
vironment o ood advertising on television to
children and how it has changed over the past
our years.
The second aspect o our ndings (below)
evaluates the ecacy o the Childrens Food
and Beverage Advertising Initiative that was
implemented in July 2007. As o early 2009,a total o 15 companies participated in the
initiative, each one oering a unique com-
mitment to improve their marketing activities
targeted at children. Our evaluation employs
two complementary perspectives. The rst
assesses whether or not the companies com-
plied with their pledges, issued under the
initiative program. The second, and arguably
more critical analysis, examines the extent to
which the industrys sel-regulatory program
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
o ood advertising during childrens pro-
gramming. In contrast, the proportion o ads
devoted to sugared snacks declined rom
20.8% to 10.1% during that same period. Most
other aspects o the product proles adver-
tised to children remained relatively stable,
just as they have in the past. O particular note,
the category o ruits/vegetables/100% juice
remained almost invisible, accounting or 0.4%
o all advertising during childrens programs in
2009, as compared to 0.7% in 2005.
QUESTION: What types o persuasive tactics
are used to promote ood products to
children?
Each ood commercial observed during the
study was judged or its primary theme or
appeal. Associating un/happiness with the
advertised product was the most common
tactic used in advertising to children, account-
ing or 30.7% o all ads (see Table 4). Nearly as
common, taste/avor/smell was the primary
theme in 28.8% o all ads. The oering o a
shit, however, ood commercials remain a sig-
nicant presence on television and are still one
o the most heavily advertised product types
on that medium.
QUESTION: What types o ood products are
advertised to children?
A small number o popular categories accounts
or the large majority o ood advertising to
children. In 2009, commercials promoting
sugared cereals, ast oods/restaurants and
sugared snacks comprised over 70% o all ood
advertising during childrens shows (see Table3). This pattern has held relatively stable over
the past several decades (Kunkel & McIlrath,
2003; Palmer & Carpenter, 2006). Consistent
with this pattern, these same categories ac-
counted or 67.6% o all ood commercials in
our 2005 study.
A noticeable shit rom 2005 to 2009 is that
ast oods/restaurants have increased their
share rom 20.8% to 35.5% o the total volume
table 1
Comparison o Time Devoted to Food Ads and Non-Food Ads
Food Ads (N=534) Non-Food Ads (N=1285) Total Ads (N=1819)
N per hourMinutesper hour N per hour
Minutesper hour N per hour
Minutesper hour
Broadcast 8.8 3:06 15.3 6:45 24.1 9:52
Cable 7.2 2:39 19 8:06 26.3 10:45
Overall 7.6 2:44 18.2 7:49 25.8 10:34
table 2
Diferences in Time Devoted To Food and Non-Food Ads Across Channel Type, 2005-2009
Broadcast Cable Overall
2005 2007 2009 2005 2007 2009 2005 2007 2009
Food ads per hour 12.7a 8.2b 8.8b 9.9a 8.6a 7.2b 10.9a 8.5b 7.6b
Minutes per hour devoted to
ood ads 5:14a 3:16b 3:06b 3:52a 3:33a 2:39b 4:22a 3:29b 2:44c
Non-ood ads per hour 11.5a 13.3a,b 15.3b 13.4a 15.2a 19.0b 12.8a 14.7b 18.2c
Minutes per hour devoted to
non-ood ads 4:30a 5:32a,b 6:45b 5:59a 6:11a 8:06b 5:29a 6:02a 7:49b
All ads per hour 24.2a 21.5a 24.1a 23.2a 23.8a 26.3b 23.7a 23.3a 25.8b
Minutes per hour devoted to
all ads 9:45a 8:49a 9:52a 9:52a 9:45a 10:45b 9:51a 9:32a 10:34b
Findings with dierent subscripts are signifcantly dierent at p < .05.
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table 3
Distribution o Food Product Types Shown During Televised Food Advertising to Children
Product Type Broadcast Cable Overall
Sugared cereals (N=138) 18.2% 28.4% 25.8%
Fast oods/restaurants (N=190) 40.9% 33.8% 35.5%
Sugared snacks (N=54) 12.1% 9.5% 10.1%
Sugared beverages (N=38) 12.9% 5.2% 7.1%
Pasta (N=34) 4.5% 7.0% 6.4%
Salted snacks (N=33) 5.3% 6.5% 6.2%
Dairy (N=30) 5.3% 5.7% 5.6%
Pre-packaged lunches (N=8) 0.8% 1.7% 1.5%
Easy to prepare meals (N=4) - 1.0% 0.7%
Fruits/Veggies/100% Juice (N=2) - 0.5% 0.4%
Other (N =3) - 0.7% 0.6%
Columns sum to 100% N=132 N=402 N=534
table 4
Primary Themes and Appeals Used in Televised Food Advertising to Children
Broadcast Cable Overall
Fun/happiness (N=164) 31.1% 30.6% 30.7%
Taste/avor/smell (N=154) 34.1% 27.1% 28.8%
Premium (N=90) 10.6% 18.9% 16.9%
Popularity o product (N=34) 2.3% 7.7% 6.4%
Unique (N=22) 5.3% 3.7% 4.1%
Product perormance (N=10) 3.8% 1.2% 1.9%
Physical strength (N=10) 3.8% 1.2% 1.9%
Economy/price (N=10) 3.0% 1.5% 1.9%
Quantity/size/amount (N=8) 0.0% 2.0% 1.5%
Social context (N=6) 0.8% 1.2% 1.1%
Convenience (N=5) 3.0% 0.2% 0.9%
Texture (N=4) 0.8% 0.7% 0.7%
Healthier ood (N=1) - 0.2% 0.2%
Other (N=16) 1.5% 3.5% 3.0%
Columns sum to 100% N=132 N=402 N=534
premium in addition to the product (e.g., a toy
included with purchase o a childrens meal)
was the principal message in 16.9% o all ood
ads. Collectively, these three tactics account
or the primary persuasive appeal in roughly
three-ourths (76.4%) o all ood advertising to
children.
Among the least common type o themes
were ads devoted primarily to inormation
about the ood product. For example, 1.9% o
all ads emphasized economy or price, while
1.5% o ads ocused on quantity/size/amount
o the product. Commercials that emphasize
the advertised ood is a healthy product are
extremely rare, at 0.2% o all ood ads. As with
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
to promote ood products are typically the
most popular gures across the landscape o
childrens television.
Table 6 also indicates that product-based
spokes-characters appear in roughly hal(53.9%) o all ood ads during childrens pro-
grams. Spokes-characters are requently used
to promote sugared cereals, appearing in 68.1%
o all such commercials, as well as ast oods/
restaurants, appearing in 58.4% o their spots
aired during childrens programming. Licensed
characters are used less oten overall, but are
still a regular presence, appearing in 15.7% o
childrens ood ads.
Important policy questions have been raised
regarding the use o licensed characters within
commercials that promote non-nutritious oodproducts to children. This issue will be ad-
dressed in the next section o this report.
QUESTION: What is the nutritional quality o
the oods advertised during childrens televi-
sion programming?
As noted earlier, many previous studies o
ood marketing to children have limited their
analysis to descriptive statistics regarding the
requency with which various product types
(e.g., sugared cereals, salted snacks) are ad-
vertised. Unortunately, this approach requires
that inerences be drawn about the nutrition-al value o various ood product categories. In
some cases, such as ads or sugared cereals,
these inerences may well be sound; but in
others, such as tallying ads or ast oods/
restaurants, a problem can occur, because a
commercial could be devoted either to a ruit
salad oering or a hamburger and ries meal.
Each o these cases would clearly hold dier-
ent implications or evaluating the nutritional
quality o the oods advertised to children, yet
both would simply be classied as a ast ood/
restaurant ad i measurement was limited
strictly to product type.
One o the strengths o this study is its in-
dependent analysis o the nutritional quality
o each ood product presented in all com-
mercials shown during childrens television
programming. To accomplish this analysis, we
employ the U.S. Department o Health and
Human Services Go, Slow, Whoa ood rating
ramework. Figure 1 demonstrates two clear
trends in our ndings regarding the nutritional
the types o products advertised, the primary
theme/appeal in childrens advertising has
also remained remarkably stable across past
decades (Kunkel & Gantz, 1992; Kunkel & McIl-
rath, 2003), so it is not surprising our current
data show little, i any, change rom the long-
standing trends that have emphasized un/
happiness over product inormation.
Table 5 reveals that certain types o persua-
sive appeals are more closely associated with
some products than others. For example, un/
happiness themes are used requently in ads
or salted snacks (66.7%) and ast oods/res-
taurants (48.4%). Fun/happiness themes are
even more common in ads or childrens easy-
to-prepare meals (75%), though the small
number o cases observed or this type o
product (N=4) suggests some caution in in-terpreting this nding. The use o premiums is
another tactic oten employed to attract chil-
dren to ood products. Commercials or dairy
productsprimarily yogurtwere the most
likely to use premiums as a persuasive tactic
(56.7%), although ast oods/restaurants also
used this technique as their primary appeal in
more than a quarter o all ads (27.4%).
Table 6 assesses how requently several other
promotional tactics were employed within ads,
including eorts to encourage children to visit
ood marketing company websites. While the
overall volume o ood advertising to children
on television is down, as we reported above,
other research has documented an increasing
amount o online ood marketing to children
(Chester & Montgomery, 2007; Weber, Story,
& Harnack, 2006). Thus, it is not surprising
that more than hal (57.1%) o all ood ads
airing during childrens television programs
in 2009 promote a ood marketing company
website (e.g., postopia.com, millsberry.com). In
contrast, only 18.7% o all childrens ood adver-
tising in 2005 promoted a company website,
which means the rate o web site promos has
more than tripled since 2005.
Food and beverage marketers also employ the
use o product-based spokes-characters, as
well as licensed characters, in their commercial
messages. Research shows that licensed char-
acters are particularly eective at inuencing
children because children trust the characters
they are repeatedly exposed to in program
content (Institute o Medicine, 2006). Indeed,
the licensed characters chosen by advertisers
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table 5
Primary Themes and Appeals Used in Televised Food Advertising to Children, by Product Type
Primary theme/appeal
Product Type
Fun/
happiness
Taste/
avor/smell Premium
Popularity
o product
Healthy
product
Sugared cereals (N=138) 16.7% 44.2% 7.2% 13.8% -
Fast oods/restaurants
(N=190) 48.4% 7.4% 27.4% 1.0% -
Sugared snacks (N=54) 7.4% 46.3% 18.5% 5.6% -
Sugared beverages (N=38) 34.2% 39.5% - 15.8% -
Pasta (N=34) 5.9% 70.6% 2.9% 8.8% -
Salted snacks (N=33) 66.7% 18.2% - 3.0% -
Dairy (N=30) 10.0% - 56.7% - -
Pre-packaged lunches (N=8) 12.5% 87.5% - - -
Easy to prepare meals (N=4) 75.0% - - - -
Fruits/Veggies/100% Juice
(N=2) 50.0% - - - 50.0%
Other (N=3) - 66.7% - - -
Overall (N=534) 30.7% 28.8% 16.9% 6.4% 0.2%
table 6
Frequency o Selected Advertising Tactics, by Product Type
Product Type Contests
Website
Promotion
Product-based
spokes-character
Licensed
character
Sugared cereals (N=138) 2.9% 30.4% 68.1% 18.1%Fast oods/restaurants (N=190) - 55.3% 58.4% 23.2%
Sugared snacks (N=54) 18.5% 88.9% 18.5% 5.6%
Sugared drinks (N=38) - 97.4% 2.6% -
Pasta (N=34) 32.4% 91.2% 82.4% -
Salted snacks (N=33) - 36.4% 33.3% -
Dairy (N=30) 56.7% 60.0% 66.7% 30.0%
Pre-packaged lunches (N=8) - 100% 100% 12.5%
Easy to prepare meals (N=4) 50.0% 50.0% 100% 50.0%
Fruits/Veggies/100% Juice (N=2) 78.9% 100% - -
Other (N=3) - - 33.3% -Overall (N=534) 8.2% 57.1% 53.9% 15.7%
quality o the oods advertised to children in
2009.
First, the large majority o oods advertised
to children in 2009 are nutritionally decient
products that should be avoided in a childs
regular diet. Nearly three-ourths (72.5%) o
all ood ads presented during childrens pro-
grams promote Whoa products. Moderately
healthy Slow products comprise roughly one-
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
breaks down as ollows. Viewers will see 5.5
ads per hour or Whoa products and 2.0 ads
per hour or moderately healthy Slow prod-
ucts. The requency with which genuinely
healthy ood ads appear is so low, however,
that a child would need to watch more than
10 hours o childrens programs beore he or
she would encounter just one commercial or a
Go product (see Figure 2). During the 10 hourso viewing that would be required to encoun-
ter just one healthy ood ad, a child meanwhile
would be exposed to a total o 55 ads or Whoa
products and 20 ads or Slow products.
Summary o Key FindingsTo review, this section o our report identies
two critical ndings. First, ood advertising to
children on television has declined in volume
between 2005 and 2009. The average number
o ood ads appearing during childrens pro-
gramming has dropped rom 10.9 per hour in
2005 to 7.6 per hour in 2009. While most other
patterns in televised ood marketing to children
have remained stable, this nding reects a
30% reduction in the amount o ood advertis-
ing presented during childrens programming.
Although that reduction is meaningul, it is im-
portant to recognize that ood and beverage
marketing retains a signicant presence in the
childrens television environment, and young
viewers will still be see thousands o ood
ourth (26.6%) o the total volume o ood ads,
while genuinely healthy Go ood products are
almost never advertised on television to chil-
dren. They represent less than 1% (0.9%) o the
534 total ood ads identied in the study.
The second important trend illustrated by
Figure 1 is strong consistency in the nutrition-
al quality o oods marketed to children acrossthe two platorms o broadcast and cable tele-
vision. That is, the nutritional quality o oods
advertised does not vary during childrens pro-
gramming, regardless o whether one watches
broadcast or cable channels. In either case,
children will see an equivalent preponderance
o nutritionally poor oods during the commer-
cial interruptions.
Another perspective on the nutritional quality
o oods marketed to children can be gained
by evaluating the ad content contained in an
average hour o programs. This perspective
is presented in Table 7, which analyzes the
average number o ood ads shown per hour,
with breakdowns or each o the three cate-
gories in the U.S. Department o Health and
Human Services Go, Slow, Whoa ramework.
As reported above, our 2009 data show that
youngsters will see an average o 7.6 ood ads
or every hour they spend watching childrens
programming (see Table 7). This overall total
table 7
Average Number o Food Ads Per Hour by Nutritional Quality Categories
Nutritional Quality Category
Product Type Whoa (N=387) Slow (N=142) Go (N=5)
Sugared cereals (N=138) 1.96 - -
Fast oods/restaurants (N=190) 1.16 1.52 0.01
Sugared snacks (N=54) 0.77 - -
Sugared beverages (N=38) 0.52 0.01 -
Pasta (N=34) 0.21 0.27 -
Salted snacks (N=33) 0.31 0.16
Dairy (N=30) 0.37 0.04 0.01
Pre-packaged lunches (N=8) 0.11 - -
Easy to prepare meals (N=4) 0.06 - -
Fruits (N=2) - - 0.03
Other (N=3) 0.01 0.01 0.01
Overall (N = 534) 5.52 2.01 0.09
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
Beore drawing nal conclusions rom our
research, it is important to consider the ol-
lowing section o this report, which provides a
detailed evaluation o the ecacy o all key di-
mensions o the Childrens Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative. Nonetheless, the ndings
rom this rst section o our study present the
undamental evidence or measuring achieve-
ment o the IOMs industry-wide goals.
While sel-regulatory eorts have clearly ac-
complished slight change in the desired
direction, reducing the prevalence o nutrition-
ally poor ood advertising rom 84% to 72.5%
o advertising during childrens programs
between 2005 and 2009, the reorm accom-
plished to date alls ar below the stated goal.
In addition, the change observed is occurring
at a pace that does not reect the urgency othe public health crisis the nation aces involv-
ing childhood obesity.
Consider the ollowing extrapolation. With
the measuring stick or nutritionally poor ood
ads starting at 84.0% in 2005, and a demon-
strated rate o change that has reduced this
level roughly 12% over our years time, one
can project uture expectations. At the current
pace, it would take approximately eight more
years, or until 2017, to reach the tipping point
where the proportion o childrens ood adver-
tising devoted to nutritionally poor products
would rst drop below the 50% level. Yet this
calculation represents only hal o the basic
goal structure.
In addition to halting the predominance o
nutritionally poor ood products in TV adver-
tising to children, the Institute o Medicine also
implored the ood and beverage industry to
exercise its marketing muscle to promote gen-
uinely healthy ood options. In this regard, our
data show that literally no progress has yet
been achieved. Whereas 3% o all televised
ood marketing to children in 2005 were or
genuinely healthy Go products, that level hasallen slightly to 0.9% in 2009. In other words,
to the extent that industry advertising eorts
have modestly reduced promotion o the
worst possible ood products to children, they
have so ar replaced those undesirable options
with only slightly improved ood oerings that
are still o limited nutritional value in a childs
daily diet.
ads each year during childhood, even at this
reduced rate o exposure. Thus, the nutrition-
al content o the oods advertised to children
remains critically important, which leads to our
second key conclusion.
The nutritional quality o oods marketed to
children remains heavily skewed toward non-
nutritious products that should not be part
o a childs regular diet. That is, nearly three
o every our ood ads aired during childrens
television programs (72.5%) promote a Whoa
product. Whoa products are high in calories
and low in nutrients, and should be consumed
only once in awhile or on special occasions,
according to the U.S. Department o Health
and Human Services (2005, p. 14). The extent
to which unhealthy oods predominate over
healthier are has declined somewhat since2005, when Whoa products accounted or
84.0% o all ood ads targeted to children (see
Figure 3). Nonetheless, our data demonstrate
that nutritionally poor ood products contin-
ue their strong predominance in the childrens
advertising environment. O arguably equal
importance, ads or truly healthy oods, classi-
ed as Go products under the U.S. Department
o Health and Human Services scheme remain
virtually invisible. Indeed, less than one o
every 100 (0.9%) ood ads aired on childrens
shows promotes a healthy product that chil-
dren can eat saely on a daily basis.
Based on these ndings, it is clear that, as o
2009, the ood marketing industry has ailed
to meet the recommendation o the Institute
o Medicine (2006) o the National Academies
to voluntarily shit the longstanding emphasis
in childrens ood marketing away rom low-
nutrient, high-density oods to a clear reliance
on healthy ood options. Moreover, it is worth
noting that the Institute o Medicine issued a
contingency recommendation i voluntary in-
dustry eorts were not successul in reversing
the existing pattern. Specically:
I voluntary eorts related to advertising
during childrens television program-
ming are unsuccessul in shiting the
emphasis away rom high-calorie and
low-nutrient oods and beverages to
the advertising o healthul oods and
beverages, Congress should enact leg-
islation mandating the shit on both
broadcast and cable television. (IOM,
2006, pp. 14-15)
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such as a promise to not use licensed
characters at all, or to use them only
in ads or products that meet certain
nutritional standards.
Across the 15 companies studied, our o them(Cadbury Adams, Coca-Cola, Hersheys, Mars)
have pledged not to advertise any o their
products to audiences o children under 12.
The remaining 11 companies have all devised
independent criteria or dening a healthy
ood product (labeled better-or-you under
the initiative program specications), and all
but one have pledged to limit their advertis-
ing to children exclusively to these products.
Finally, the 11 participating companies that ad-
vertise to children all include in their pledges
some type o commitment to limit the use o li-
censed characters to advertising that promoteshealthy oods. The most common pledge is
that licensed characters will be eatured only
in ads or products that meet a companys nu-
tritional standards or healthy oods, although
some participants oer a more vague commit-
ment to limit licensed characters to advertising
or healthy dietary choices (McDonalds) or
that will support sound ood choices (Camp-
bell Soup).
As with the prior section, the ndings to eval-
uate the industrys sel-regulatory initiative
(below) are organized according to key re-
search questions addressed by the study.
QUESTION: Are companies that participate
in the Childrens Food and Beverage Ad-
vertising Initiative ullling their individual
pledges regarding the nutritional quality o
advertised oods?
As noted above, our o the participating com-
panies have pledged not to advertise any ood
products to children. Across the entire sample
or this study, spanning a total o 139 childrens
programs on broadcast and cable channels,
no commercials rom any o these companies
were ever observed, and thus their portion o
the pledge program was ullled. It is possi-
ble that this aspect o the initiative program
contributes to the reduction observed in the
overall amount o ood advertising present-
ed during childrens programming in 2009, as
compared to 2005.
O the remaining 11 companies, our study ob-
served advertising messages aired by eight o
Evaluation o Industry
Sel-RegulationThe second principal aspect o the study in-
volves examination o the Childrens Food andBeverage Advertising Initiative. In this section
o the report, we address two key ocuses: (1)
how well do companies that participate in the
initiative ulll their pledges, and (2) how has
the initiative impacted the overall nutrition-
al quality o oods marketed on television to
children?
To qualiy as a participant in the Childrens
Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative,
companies must agree to devote at least
hal o their advertising directed to children
under 12 on TV, radio, print and the Internet
to better-or-you products and/or to messag-es that encourage good nutrition or healthy
liestyles (Kolish & Peeler, 2008, p. 4). In addi-
tion, participants commit to reduce the use o
third-party licensed characters in advertising
primarily directed to children under 12, unless
such advertising is or better-or-you oods or
includes healthy liestyle messaging (Kolish &
Peeler, 2008, p. 4). While the initiative also in-
cludes commitments to limit advertising in
terms o product placement, interactive games
and in elementary school environments, only
the two prongs cited above are relevant to this
studys examination o television advertisingand, thus, are the ocus o this evaluation.
In addition to subscribing to the core principles
o the initiative, each participating company
oers an individual pledge that species its
own unique criteria or dening a healthy ood
product. There is no uniorm nutrition stan-
dard applied across all companies involved
in the initiative pledge program. Rather, each
participant establishes a distinct pledge, indi-
cating its commitment in terms o:
(a) overall restrictions on ood adver-
tising to children, such as a promise
not to advertise any products to
child audiences;
(b) standards that must be met regard-
ing the nutritional quality o ood
products that will be advertised to
children;
(c) limits on the use o licensed charac-
ters in ood advertising to children,
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
or products rom companies that are not par-
ticipating in the pledge program. Thus, the
current reach o industry sel-regulation stands
at a bit more than two-thirds o all commer-
cials presented during childrens programs.
Table 8 indicates that our companies pre-
dominate in the marketplace o childrens ood
advertising. Krat, McDonalds, General Mills,
and Kellogg collectively account or 58.3% o
ood advertising observed overall and or 81.9%
o all advertising rom pledge companies.
The level o participation in the industrys sel-
regulatory initiative has grown since July 2007,
when the program was initially unveiled with
11 participating companies. According to the
Council o Better Business Bureaus, the parent
organization that supervises the ChildrensFood and Beverage Advertising Initiative, the
original 11 companies accounted or at least
two-thirds o the television advertising expen-
ditures or ood and beverage advertising to
children in 2004 (Kolish & Peeler, 2008, p. 3).
It is important to note, however, that the in-
clusion o our additional companies has not
appreciably expanded the reach o ood ad-
vertising to children that is subject to industry
sel-regulation, which stands at 71.3% in 2009.
This may be due, in part, to the act that some
companies participating in the pledge program
have reduced and/or discontinued entirely
their ood marketing eorts targeted at chil-
dren. For example, ve companies (Cadbury
Adams, Hershey, Nestle, PepsiCo and Unilever)
that currently participate in the sel-regulato-
ry program collectively accounted or 15% o
the total o 557 ads observed in our previous
study in 2005. In contrast, no advertising by
any o these companies was identied across
139 childrens programs in 2009.
This creates an ironic situation. While it may
be desirable rom a public health perspective
to see companies that oer low-nutrient, high-density ood products voluntarily discontinue
their advertising to children, this outcome may
provide opportunity or other companies that
do not adhere to industry sel-regulation to
enter the market and/or to increase their ad-
vertising eorts in order to gain competitive
advantage over initiative participants. Should
this be the case, the net impact o the in-
dustry sel-regulatory initiative, in terms o
signicantly aecting the overall landscape o
them (Burger King, Campbell Soup, ConAgra
Foods, Dannon, General Mills, Kellogg, Krat
Foods, and McDonalds USA) (see Table 8).
No advertising was encountered or prod-
ucts marketed by Nestle, PepsiCo or Unilever
across any o the 139 childrens programs
sampled or our research between February
and April 2009.
O 381 total ads rom the eight companies
participating in the initiative program, all com-
plied with the unique criteria specied by the
parent companys nutritional guidelines. That
is, each ad eatured a product that met all el-
ements o the applicable companys nutrition
standards, as specied in its individual pledge.
Some ads were encountered that placed little,
i any, emphasis on a specic ood product.
For example, a McDonalds ad that showedRonald McDonald preparing or bedtime never
mentioned a particular advertised product,
though it included a one-second-long visual
depiction o a pledge-compliant Happy Meal
on his night stand in the background. While
this commercial might be argued to promote
McDonalds general brand and overall product
portolio, which includes many non-nutritious
options, the study ultimately judged this ad
and a handul o others like it to be devoted
to a pledge-compliant ood product, based
on the brie visual presentation o a pledge
product. Thus, such ads were not considereda violation.
In sum, our data make clear that all participants
in the Childrens Food and Beverage Advertis-
ing Initiative have complied with all aspects
o their commitments regarding nutrition-
al guidelines or the oods advertised to the
child audience, as specied by each company.
We demonstrate with additional data below,
however, that this nding does not warrant the
conclusion that the oods marketed to children
by participating companies should necessarily
be considered healthy.
QUESTION: How much o the televised
ood advertising targeted at children origi-
nates with companies that participate in the
Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising
Initiative?
O 534 total ood ads identied in the study
during 2009, 71.3% (N=381) came rom compa-
nies participating in the industry sel-regulatory
program. The remaining 28.7% (N=153) were
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As noted in a previous section, the undamen-
tal policy goal advocated by the Institute o
Medicine is to reverse the childrens ood adver-
tising environment by shiting the emphasis
away rom high-calorie and low-nutrient oods
and beverages to the advertising o healthul
oods and beverages (IOM, 2006, pp. 14-15).
To be clear, this recommendation does not
seek to have the industry merely reduce the
unhealthy ingredients in high-calorie, low-nu-
trient oods and beverages in a manner thatrenders them less unhealthy. Rather, the Insti-
tute o Medicine clearly articulates a goal that
ood marketers should shit their advertising to
healthy oods and beverageswith healthy
judged rom an absolute, not a relative, per-
spective. Herein lies the disconnect between
the aspirations o the industrys sel-regulatory
program and the public health goals currently
sought to help deeat the epidemic o child-
hood obesity.
The near-term public health goal is to achieve
a predominance o healthy oods in advertising
to children, rather than the opposite pattern
that has prevailed long into the past. Yet the
near-term industry response, in the orm o
the Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising
Initiative, addresses the issue rom a dier-
ent angle. Most companies allow products to
qualiy as healthier under their nutritional
standards simply as a unction o altering the
ingredients to modestly reduce health risk rom
heavy consumption. For example, an existing
televised ood advertising, could be severely
compromised.
Regardless o any conjecture about uture de-
velopments, our data indicate that more than
one-quarter (28.7%) o all televised ood mar-
keting to children is not subject to any o the
precautions or protections provided by the
Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising
Initiative.
QUESTION: What is the nutritional quality o
the oods marketed to children by companies
that participate in the Childrens Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative?
Despite the act that all ood advertising by
industry sel-regulatory participants com-
plies with each companys nutritional pledge,
our data indicate that two-thirds o all pledge
company advertising to children is devoted
to products o the poorest nutritional quality,
according to the Go-Slow-Whoa ood rating
system. Specically, 68.5% o all ood ads
aired by participating companies promote
non-nutritious Whoa products, while 31.0%
eature moderately healthy Slow products and
only 0.5% are or truly healthy Go products.
These data illustrate a undamental disconnect
between the way in which ood products are
dened as healthy, according to the pledge
criteria employed or the Childrens Food and
Beverage Advertising Initiative, and the way
in which healthy nutritional quality is judged
rom an independent perspective.
table 8
Distribution o Food Ads, by Pledge Company
Pledge Company N o Ads
% o All Food
Ads
% o Pledge
Co. Food Ads
Krat 89 16.7% 23.4%
McDonalds 85 15.9% 22.3%
General Mills 81 15.2% 21.2%
Kelloggs 57 10.5% 15.0%
Campbells 19 3.6% 5.0%
Dannon 19 3.6% 5.0%
Con Agra 17 3.2% 4.5%
Burger King 14 2.6% 3.6%
Overall 381 71.3% 100%
1. Four participating companies (Cadbury Adams, Coca-Cola, Hersheys, Mars) pledged not toengage in child-directed ood and beverage advertising.
2. No ads were observed or Nestle, Pepsi, or Unilever during the study period.
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
product that has substantial added sugar, at
or salt can qualiy or the healthier designa-
tion i part o the added ingredient is removed
rom the product recipe, despite the act that
the product still includes levels o added ingre-
dients (i.e., sugar, at, salt) considered to be
excessive. Indeed, the ood marketing industry
has coined the term better-or-you speci-
cally to describe such products in an eort to
imply they represent a healthul ood.
This study demonstrates that the majority o
ood products advertised to children that are
classied as better-or-you are not really
good-or-you, at least according to the U.S.
Department o Health and Human Services
consumer ood rating scheme. When viewed
rom an absolute, rather than a relative per-
spective, the majority o oods that complywith the nutritional standards o the industrys
sel-regulatory initiative are not considered
healthul. Indeed, almost none (0.5%) are
truly healthy Go products, while only about
one-third (31.0%) are considered moderately
healthy Slow products.
Figure 4 illustrates precisely what the indus-
trys sel-regulatory initiative has achieved
in terms o improving the overall nutritional
quality o oods marketed to children. In 2005,
the concern about ood marketing to chil-
dren had not ully suraced as a critical public
health issue, and no sel-regulation could be
seen on the horizon. In 2007, the initial pledges
or the Childrens Food and Beverage Adver-
tising Initiative were announced and became
operational. Thus, by comparing the industrys
advertising practices in 2005 to those o 2009,
it is possible to quantiy the improvements
accomplished by the Childrens Food and Bev-
erage Advertising Initiative. Over a our-year
span, the predominance o Whoa products di-
minished rom an initial level o 78.7% o all ads
rom participating pledge companies to 68.5%
in 2009. In complementary ashion, the share
o pledge company advertising devoted tomoderately healthy Slow products increased
rom 17.1% in 2005 to 31.0% in 2009, while ad-
vertising or Go products remained extremely
low across both times o measurement.
This change is a positive one, and the indus-
try deserves some credit or achieving it.
That said, the degree o improvements ac-
complished in the overall nutritional quality o
oods marketed to children clearly all ar short
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In terms o change over time, the nutritional
quality o advertising by non-pledge com-
panies improved rom 2005 to 2009. The
proportion o ads devoted to Whoa products
declined rom 98.7% in 2005 to 82.9% in 2009,
while the requency o moderately healthy
Slow product advertising increased rom 1.3%
to 15.1% over the same period. Advertising orGo products remained extremely low across
both times o measurement.
It is important to compare the advertising
practices o companies that do and do not
participate in the industrys program o sel-
regulation. That issue is addressed in the next
section.
QUESTION: How does the nutritional quality
o ood marketed by non-pledge companies
compare with the nutritional quality o oods
marketed by pledge companies that partic-
ipate in the Childrens Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative?
Figure 6 demonstrates that non-pledge com-
panies advertise nutritionally poor Whoa
products at a much higher rate than compa-
nies that participate in the voluntary pledge
program. Specically, 82.9% o non-pledge
company ood advertising was or Whoa
products in 2009, as compared to only 68.5%
o the objectives specied by the Institute o
Medicine.
QUESTION: What is the nutritional quality o
the oods marketed to children by companies
that do not participate in the Childrens Food
and Beverage Advertising Initiative?
Another means o evaluating the benet oindustry sel-regulation is to examine the ad-
vertising practices o those companies that
do not participate in the initiative. As noted
above, companies that do not participate in
the pledge program accounted or 28.7% o
all ood advertising during childrens program-
ming. Chuck E. Cheeses is the most prominent
non-participant, accounting or 12.4% o chil-
drens ood advertising observed in the study
(see Table 9). Another visible non-participant
is Topps, makers o Ring Pop and Baby Bottle
Pop candies, among others. This company ac-
counts or 5.3% o all ood ads observed in2009. Our study also identied ads rom 10
other national companies that are not includ-
ed in the voluntary program.
Figure 5 presents the nutritional prole o the
ood products advertised by non-participating
companies. In 2009, 82.9% o ads rom non-
pledge companies were or Whoa products.
O the remainder, 15.1% were or Slow products
and 2.0% were Go products.
table 9
Distribution o Food Ads, by Non-Pledge Company
Non-Pledge Company N o Ads
% o All Food
Ads
% o Non-Pledge
Co. Food Ads
Chuck E. Cheeses 66 12.4% 43.1%
Topps 29 5.3% 19.0%
Sunny Delight 14 2.6% 9.2%
Subway 14 2.6% 9.2%
Peretti Van Melle 11 2.1% 7.2%
IHOP 9 1.7% 5.9%
Wrigleys 2 0.4% 1.3%
Yum! 2 0.4% 1.3%
Jack in the Box 2 0.4% 1.3%
Johnson & Johnson 2 0.4% 1.3%
Novartis 1 0.2% 0.6%
Mrs. Butterworth 1 0.2% 0.6%
Overall 153 28.7% 100%
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The Impact of Industry Self-Regulation on the Nutritional Quality of Foods Advertised on Television to Children
not qualiy as healthy according to the nutri-
tional guidelines or cereals marketed by Krat
Foods.
This is not an isolated example. There are
seven other General Mills cereal products ea-tured in ads and observed in this study that t
the same prole; they are judged as healthy
by their parent companys set o standards but
would not be classied as such by the nutrition-
al guidelines o another participating company.
Moreover, this example is not an indictment o
lax nutritional standards on the part o General
Mills. This pattern o inconsistency is pervasive,
and examples o similar conicts can be iden-
tied when comparing many products across
diering pairs o company standards.
At its root, this situation suggests that eachcompany tailors its unique nutritional guide-
lines to dene healthy oods by careully
weighing the implications o each actor or
its particular product portolio. It implies that
shades o grey in close call decision-making
may be shaped at least in part by a companys
sel-interest in qualiying more o its prod-
ucts in the healthy category. As a result, it
means that even though each participating
company may ully comply with its pledge
commitments, that does not necessarily mean
all oods marketed to children that meet those
company-based standards would actually
qualiy as healthy when judged rom an inde-
pendent, neutral perspective.
Many observers suggest the optimal approach
to evaluate the nutritional quality o oods
marketed to children would be to employ a
uniorm nutritional standard, whether or not
that standard is applied by industry sel-reg-
ulation or governmental regulatory policy
(Miller, 2008). In an eort to apply a level-play-
ing eld test that airly evaluates the nutritional
quality o oods marketed to children by sel-
regulatory participants, we have devised a set
o uniorm nutritional standards based entirelyon guidelines already implemented by one or
more companies as part o the Childrens Food
and Beverage Advertising Initiative. We have
devised a metric that we term an Optimal Com-
posite Nutritional Standard (OCNS). The OCNS
is specic to certain types o products, such as
(a) childrens meals and (b) breakast cereals,
which are the two examples we employ here.
To construct the OCNS or childrens meals, we
or pledge companies. Conversely, pledge
companies are twice as likely to advertise a
moderately healthy Slow product to children
(31% o all their ood advertising) compared
to non-pledge companies (15.1% o all their
ood advertising). The amount o advertising
devoted to healthy Go products is so low overall
as to render any comparison meaningless.
These data indicate that, rom a comparative
perspective, companies participating in the
Childrens Food and Beverage Advertising Ini-
tiative tend to devote more o their marketing
eorts to oods o better nutritional quality
than non-participating companies. Concomi-
tantly, pledge participants devote less o their
advertising to oods o the poorest nutritional
quality, as compared to non-participants.
QUESTION: What proportion o oods mar-
keted to children by pledge companies meet
the best nutritional standards specied by all
companies that participate in the Childrens
Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative?
A signicant limitation o the sel-regulatory
program is the lack o any uniorm nutrition-
al standard or identiying ood products that
qualiy as healthy and are, thereore, consid-
ered appropriate or advertising to audiences
o young children. Indeed, it is puzzling that
a ood product classied as healthy by one
companys standards can all short o the nu-tritional guidelines o another because o the
varying nutritional criteria employed across
the ull range o participating companies. In
such a case, an identical product could be
judged as either healthy and pledge-compli-
ant or non-nutritious and a pledge violation,
depending on its aliation with one particular
corporate parent, as compared to another.
Consider the ollowing example: Cocoa Pus
cereal meets all the applicable criteria spec-
ied by its parent corporation, General Mills,
to qualiy as a healthy product. It contains no
more than 175 calories per serving, no trans
ats and no more than 12 grams o added sugar,
among other criteria. I the same product was
marketed by Krat Foods, however, it would
all short o Krats guideline, which species
that a healthy product contains no more than
25% o total calories rom added sugar. This
means that Cocoa Pus is considered a healthy
product according to nutritional guidelines or
cereals specied by General Mills, but it would
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o the OCNS to all ads aired by pledge com-
panies or childrens meal products. As noted
in a previous section, all ads rom Childrens
Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative
participants complied with the applicable
company-specic nutritional guidelines. Table
10, however, indicates that, across all com-
mercials or meal products rom participating
companies, only 12% o products meet the
OCNS criteria. Only meals marketed by Burger
King comply with all applicable standards. In
contrast, 88% o the meal products advertised
by participating companies all short on one
or more o the uniorm nutritional standards
that comprise the OCNS, including all oer-
ings rom ConAgra, Krat, and McDonalds.
A second area to which we apply the Optimal
Composite Nutritional Standard is breakastcereals. A total o 20 dierent cereal products
marketed by three participating companies ap-
peared in 138 ads identied by the study. Table
11 reveals that only 8% o all the products ea-
tured in ads meet the OCNS criteria and, thus,
would be classied as healthy oods. These
include two well-known products, General
Mills Cheerios and Kelloggs Rice Krispies. In
contrast, 92% o all cereals advertised by com-
panies participating in sel-regulation all short
on one or more o the uniorm nutritional stan-
dards that comprise the OCNS.
To summarize, because the Childrens Food
and Beverage Advertising Initiative lacks a
uniorm nutrition guideline, and, thus, the
standards or dening a healthy ood vary
substantially rom one company to another,
this study compiled a list o the best nutri-
tional standards employed by sel-regulatory
participants in two ood product areas: chil-
drens meals and breakast cereals. This set
o standards is termed the Optimal Compos-
ite Nutritional Standard. Our analysis revealed
the overwhelming majority o advertising rom
companies participating in the initiative do
not meet these best standards shared by theirpeers in the two product areas we examined.
Specically, 88% o all advertised products ell
short in the area o childrens meals, while 92%
ailed the test among breakast cereals.
Like our previous ndingthat roughly three-
ourths o all ood advertising that ully complies
with the pledges o sel-regulatory participants
is actually o poor nutritional categorythe
outcome here seems to urther question the
consider the basic nutritional guidelines spec-
ied by the initiative, one criterion at a time:
number o calories per serving, amount o
calories rom at, amount o calories rom satu-
rated at, amount o calories rom added sugar
and amount o sodium. For each criterion, we
search through the entire range o standards
indicated in the pledges across all participat-
ing companies and then identiy the guideline
that is the best, or optimal,