• by adam.m , Michael Deibert , July 14, 2005

Under fire from regulators, health organizations, and consumer advocates for contributing to childhood obesity, some of America's most visible food marketers unveiled plans to back a massive public service advertising effort intended to curb obesity - and presumably, consumption of some of their own products yesterday. The effort, dubbed the Coalition for Healthy Children, is being organized by the Advertising Council, and is backed by Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola Co., Kraft Foods, Pepsi-Co, and Welch Foods, as well as the American Heart Association, the American Dietetic Association Foundation, the American Diabetes Association, and Time magazine.

Several marketing services agencies are also involved in the effort, including McCann-Erickson, Strottman International, and The Segmentation Company.

The Advertising Council will serve as the clearinghouse for the effort, which will create a variety of public service ad messages related to nutrition and physical activity for parents and children and tracking the effectiveness of the effort.

"This coalition grew out of a shared vision by all of these different industries to address the obesity epidemic with research-based proved strategic messaging," said Ellyn Fisher, the Advertising Council's director of corporate communications. "All sectors of the community have been trying to address this individually, but with all of us coming together, we think it has great potential."

A September 2004 report issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) noted that childhood obesity has more than doubled for children ages 2 to 5 and tripled for children ages 6 to 11 years in the past three decades. At present, approximately 9 million children over the age of 6 in the United States are considered obese.