Snack Attack

Marketers are tripping over each other to prove their concern for kids’ health. Will the public buy it?

April 25, 2010

“Obesity causes a conflict of interest for food manufacturers,” she adds. “On the one hand, they need to please stockholders. ... On the other, they need to appear to be doing something about obesity. ... That’s a dilemma not easily resolved.”

One thing is clear: Companies that don’t stay ahead of the debate could lose the support of consumers and the patience of policymakers.

Consumer watchdog group Corporate Accountability International -- the folks who sent Joe Camel packing in the ’90s -- is now calling for the head of fast food’s most celebrated mascot, Ronald McDonald. (McDonald’s has publicly stated that Ronald is not used to directly promote food in advertising or in personal appearances.) Also, the country’s new healthcare law requires chain restaurants to post the calorie counts of their menu items, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun taking aim at misleading front-of-package food labels.

But even critics understand the complicated nature of wanting to help solve the obesity epidemic by making changes in how companies market to kids. “Changing advertising might help move us in the right direction, but it’s obviously only one factor,” says the University of Illinois’ Powell. “We need to make changes in all facets of life and this is one of them. ... No one should actually be thinking [advertisers are] solely to blame. We didn’t get here because of one single thing. It’s many forces working simultaneously."

Kolish, of the CFBAI, says from their perspective, marketers’ progress has been substantial: “I’m not saying there isn’t more work to be done,” she notes. “But we knew that consumer-package companies weren’t going to become green grocers overnight.”

Advocacy groups and parents also want to see changes made to the ingredients put into kids’ food. Since the establishment of the CFBAI, participating companies have reformulated or created more than 100 food or beverage products to meet self-imposed improved nutritional standards, says Kolish, as well as freshened up offerings, such as the apple slices in McDonald’s and Burger King’s kids’ meals.

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