First Lady Joins the Walt Disney Company to Announce New Standards for Food Advertising to Kids

First Lady Michelle Obama joined The Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Robert A. Iger to announce that Disney will become the first major media company to introduce new standards for food advertising on programming targeting kids and families.

Under Disney’s new standards, all food and beverage products advertised, sponsored, or promoted on Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior, Radio Disney, and Disney-owned online destinations oriented to families with younger children will be required by 2015 to meet Disney’s nutrition guidelines. The nutrition guidelines are aligned to federal standards, promote fruit and vegetable consumption and call for limiting calories and reducing saturated fat, sodium, and sugar. American children see an estimated $1.6 billion a year worth of food and beverage marketing, and many of those ads are food that are high in calories and sugar, but low in nutrition. The First Lady has been focusing on these issues since launching her Let’s Move! initiative, and in 2010 called on the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association to retool their advertising to market healthy foods and habits to children.