• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, December 5, 2006

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which last spoke out on the issue in 1994, yesterday called on its members to lobby for a ban or severe curtailment on widespread school-based ads and asked Congress to prohibit "junk food" commercials on TV shows watched mostly by young children. It also called for an end to food advertising in schools.

Major food marketers who weighed in on the latest call to ban TV advertising to kids of so-called junk food cited their own nutritional guidelines and self-regulated efforts in response.

A Kraft spokesperson referred to the company's "Sensible Solution" program, which sets nutritional guidelines for products promoted to children--and said, as did spokespersons for General Mills, Coca-Cola and Campbell, that it does no advertising in schools.

Critics have singled out Channel One, a firm that provides public affairs shows to middle and high school students. CEO Judy Harris said the company is selective about the commercials that are aired, and said it needs the sponsorship to produce new shows.

The Food Products Association and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (FPA/GMA), the largest trade association representing the food, beverage and consumer products industry, in rebuffing the AAP's arguments, also pointed to a policy of self-regulation that last month was strengthened, it said, when 10 of the leading food and beverage manufacturers launched the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.

The AAP's new policy was prompted by alarm over rising rates of childhood obesity in an atmosphere where kids increasingly are targeted by marketers, says pediatrician Victor Strasburger, the policy's senior author. But Mary Sophos, FPA/GMA senior vice president of government affairs, said: "Adhering to responsible advertising practices is just one of the ways that the food industry is helping to address the serious public health issues of overweight and obesity."

The AAP is advocating that Congress and the FCC limit commercials on children's TV to five to six minutes an hour--a 50 percent cut from what's now allowed.

The Institute of Medicine has estimated the food industry spends up to $12 billion annually to reach children through media and advertising. And it has linked the flood of junk-food ads to growing waistlines.

But representations from the advertising and grocery industries say that ad spending aimed at children dropped from 1993 to 2003, and questioned whether such a link is valid.

Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers, said the new AAP policy "has us scratching our heads over here. They are acting as if they're Rip Van Winkle, having slept through the changes that have been made over the last few years." He cited the strengthening of self-regulation endorsed by the 10 companies that produce two-thirds of all TV ads to children and an "across-the-board effort that the food, beverage, restaurant and advertising communities have made to produce and market low-fat and low-calorie products in response to the problem of childhood obesity."

A spokesperson for Coca-Cola noted that it, Cadbury-Schweppes and PepsiCo--as well as the American Beverage Association--have changed their marketing of carbonated beverages to schoolchildren since an agreement made in May to reduce portions to eight and ten ounces in elementary and middle schools. The measure was undertaken, she said, in response to what educators and parents told the companies they want.

The pediatrics group also called on makers of Viagra and similar drugs to run commercials only on shows that air after 10 p.m. These ads "make sexual activity seem like a recreational sport," while birth control commercials that could cut teen pregnancy rates are rarely aired, the policy says. A spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of American said makers of those products voluntarily commit themselves to running ads in time slots where at least 80 percent of viewers are adults.

The ANA's Jaffe also criticized the AAP's policy on tobacco and alcohol advertising, noting that it asks Congress in one place to ban all such advertising in all media and then goes on to ask the same body to restrict alcohol advertising. "You can't restrict what you've already banned," said Jaffe, who called the policy "highly disappointing."

Last year, advertisers spent $1.4 billion per month marketing to children--15 percent more than in 2004, according to James McNeal, a children's marketing expert and author of The Kids Market: Myths and Realities.

The FTC is gathering public comment by Dec. 21 on its plan to gather data from 50 major food companies on how they market food to children and how much they spend. Products likely will include quick-service restaurant items, breakfast cereals, snack foods, candy and gum, carbonated and noncarbonated beverages, frozen and chilled desserts, prepared meals, and dairy products, including milk and yogurt.

Starting in 2007, Britain is banning ads for foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar from TV programs targeted to the under-16 crowd.