Hollywood Can't Kick the Junk-Food Habit

WHY HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS CAN'T KICK THE JUNK-FOOD HABIT
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: T.L. Stanley and Stephanie Thompson]
Business-page obituaries of the deal between Walt Disney Co. and McDonald's have maintained that the studio found the children's obesity debate surrounding the fast-feeder too hot to handle. But the truth is fast-food marketers are still on the Hollywood A-list. Promotional pacts reap hundreds of millions of dollars for studios annually -- a marketer like Pepsi can pony up $30 million for a single tentpole movie -- so any thoughts that studios are about to altruistically kick the sugar and fat habit are little more than wishful thinking from the nation's food nannies. In a few cases, nutritional and advertising guidelines have affected marketing approaches. But those standards have been set by food marketers, not studios. General Mills recently announced it would no longer advertise to children under age 6 (a tack taken already by PepsiCo, Kraft and Unilever), and has severed ties to Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. altogether.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=109177