• Ad Age, Wednesday, November 30, 2005 11:32 AM

Some influential food marketers are involved in a skirmish with the Children's Advertising Review Board in which they claim the self-regulatory unit is overstepping its bounds. The controversy involves recent rulings by CARU regarding ads targeted to kids for Kraft and Burger King. Specifically, CARU has said marketers advertising mealtime foods to children must show the products within "the framework of a balanced meal," which means showing four out of five food groups in the advertising. "Given the complexity of nutrition science, this subject clearly deserved broader consultation with CARU supporters and external stakeholders," said a Kraft spokesman, warning that requiring "an inordinate number of foods be depicted in advertising representing lunch or dinner" could force advertisers to "depict an overabundance of foods." CARU works through the National Advertising Review Council, the marketing industry's self-regulatory body, which hears complaints about ads and is run by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

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