Crying Foul over Online Junk Food Marketing

Having successfully lobbied the government to place limits on junk food ads on TV, consumer and children's advocacy groups now target marketing to kids via the Web. "While there are some rules for TV, there are no rules when you move online," says Patti Miller, vice-president of children's advocacy group Children Now and a member of the Federal Communications Commission's Task Force on Media & Childhood Obesity. "We don't want to reduce junk food advertising to kids [on TV] and then find that it has just moved to another platform." The worry is that food companies are bombarding kids with ads for non-nutritious foods, fueling the obesity epidemic that, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, has increased the proportion of overweight kids under age 12 fivefold in the last generation and left almost 19% of kids between 6 and 11 overweight. A new report, commissioned by the Berkeley Media Studies Group, part of the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, Calif., focuses on methods of advertising food to kids that have become particularly popular during the past two years, such as spreading messages through social networks, and urges lawmakers to restrict junk food advertising to kids online. It will be presented to members of Congress and has been shown to officials at the European Union. "With social networking, marketers are getting the kids to create the ads and share them with their friends," says Kathryn Montgomery, an author of the report and an American University communications professor. "It is incredibly sticky and it is viral. Regulators need to understand that."