Activists Plan to Sue Viacom and Kellogg Over Ads to Children

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sarah Ellison sarah.ellison@wsj.com and Janet Adamy ]
Moving their fight for healthier food into the legal realm, a group of consumer activists and parents have notified Kellogg and Viacom that they plan to file a lawsuit over food marketing aimed at children. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Center for a Commercial-Free Childhood and four Massachusetts parents yesterday sent letters to Sumner Redstone, Viacom's chairman and chief executive, and to James Jenness, CEO of Kellogg, notifying them of their intent to file suit in Massachusetts State Court in Boston under state consumer-protection legislation. The letter accuses the companies of directly harming kids' health by marketing food of "poor nutritional quality" using characters such as Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants. Massachusetts law requires that parties be notified 30 days before a suit is filed. The prospective plaintiffs in the suit aren't taking issue with the products themselves, but rather with the advertising of the products to children, which the letter calls inherently unfair and deceptive. The prospective plaintiffs are seeking $25 for each time a child under 8 sees an ad for a nutritionally poor food on Nickelodeon or in another Viacom medium. (Violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act rewards damages of $25.) The suit also seeks damages for each time a child sees an ad for a nutritionally poor Kellogg product during children's programming on any media, or simply sees a Kellogg package with a Nickelodeon character on the box. CSPI says its primary goal isn't monetary damages, but rather an injunction against marketing and promotional tie-ins using Nickelodeon characters.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113763884339250539.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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* A New Way to Fight Junk-Food Ads
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011802382.html

* Kellogg and Viacom to Face Suit Over Ads for Children
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/business/media/19kellogg.html?pagewanted=all

* CSPI Suing Viacom, Kellogg For $2B
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6300496?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
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