ANA: Restricting Kids' Advertising Won't Solve Obesity

During the Federal Trade Commission's public forum on food marketing and childhood obesity this week, Association of National Advertisers EVP Dan Jaffe laid out multiple arguments against any new, government-imposed restrictions on advertising -- and also maintained that an overemphasis on advertising is distracting attention and resources from broader efforts needed to address the obesity problem effectively. Jaffe praised the FTC for upholding First Amendment protections in recent decades, and urged the commission to continue that policy despite "a growing chorus of consumer activists who claim that the most effective and efficient way to combat childhood obesity is through broad advertising suppression."