• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 10, 2006

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - The American Association of Advertising Agencies' top Washington executive identified efforts to curb marketing to children as the most pressing issue facing the industry.

"In the age of obesity, clearly this is the No. 1 issue we're dealing with," Dick O'Brien, executive vice president and director of government relations at the association said here Friday during a presentation at the Management Conference for Agency CEOs.

O'Brien said the debate has shifted from criticism about industry practices to questions about its integrity, fueled in part by a "feisty" and angry public.

"We as a group are not snake-oil salesmen," O'Brien said in response to the attacks, as he urged industry leaders to be proactive and "part of the solution."

Food marketers have been under increasing pressure to rein in advertising aimed at kids in the face of studies suggesting that marketing increases junk food consumption and childhood obesity. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has pushed the issue in Congress, while the Center for Science in the Public Interest has threatened a lawsuit against Nickelodeon and Kellogg seeking to limit the advertising of sweets to young children.

O'Brien, who spoke at the AAAA's Conference for Agency CEOs, listed lawmakers' efforts to limit both advertising of prescription drugs and indecency in the media as other principal issues the advertising business is dealing with in Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) has been a vocal critic of direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, arguing that it leads to increased consumption and an escalation in health care costs.

O'Brien praised both the food industry's efforts to launch new healthier products and the pharmaceutical industry's new advertising code of conduct as steps in the right direction to assure lawmakers that the industry is serious about self-policing--but suggested more is needed.

He added that while the First Amendment provides a solid defense in court, it won't be enough in the court of public opinion. "You won't (be able) to use it to win the hearts and minds of consumers," he said.