• Mediaweek, Monday, July 24, 2006 12 PM

Advertising to children is again in political play. Links between food commercials and obesity are being scrutinized, while policymakers consider limits on interactive advertising, reports Mediaweek. The topic was front and center at a forum last week in Washington that featured U.S. senators, three members of the Federal Communications Commission, and a mix of academics and executives. "Aside from the execs, few had kind words for a media environment that, according to Dale Kunkel, a communications professor at the University of Arizona, bombards kids with ads for junk food--at a time when childhood obesity rates are soaring," the trade magazine says. Kunkel calculates that half of the ads on kids' TV are for food, and 85 percent for junk food. He claims that if a child bought each food advertised in a typical day, it would take six weeks to consume the haul without exceeding dietary guidelines. "This is a significant public health challenge," he insists. Although there are no immediate proposals to bar ads based on content, others to limit the use of interactive media are on the table. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein says his agency should "severely limit" click-through TV advertising, while colleague Michael Copps suggests that parents should be able to turn off such services on their TV sets.

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