Ronald McDonald, Toucan Sam to Get Pardons From Feds?

Federal agencies behind the government's proposed voluntary guidelines for marketing food to children appear ready to back down on certain elements of the guidelines that have been the subject of vigorous opposition from the food and advertising industries.

In testimony that he'll deliver during a House subcommittee hearing Oct 12, David Vladeck, the director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection within the Federal Trade Commission, one of the four agencies in the Interagency Working Group responsible for the guidelines, will say that "the Working Group is in the midst of making significant revisions to its preliminary proposal," and that these revisions "go a long way" toward addressing concerns from industry, and "share much in common" with an industry self-regulatory program. More specifically, in his testimony, Vladeck indicates that the guidelines could be narrowed to focus only on marketing targeting children aged 12 or younger, as compared to the current draft of the guidelines, which includes marketing aimed at kids as old as 17. And, Vladeck says, "The [FTC] is making a real effort to avoid pulling in marketing activities that are family-oriented or directed to a more general audience and to limit the revised approach to marketing that more exclusively targets the child only." Notably, Vladeck also says the new guidelines wouldn't go after established characters like Ronald McDonald and Toucan Sam, or other elements of marketing and packaging "inextricably tied to the food's brand identity."