Markey Wants to Put Kids TV On Ad Diet | FTC Takes Issue with Food Marketing to Kids
MARKEY WANTS TO PUT KIDS TV ON AD DIET
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rep Ed Markey (D-MA), in a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners Deborah Tate and Michael Copps, suggests that unless there is a "dramatic and swift elimination of advertisements for "junk food" during kids shows, the FCC should reduce the number of commercial minutes allowed -- currently capped at 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 on weekends -- and discount educational shows from counting toward a station's FCC-friendly kids quotas. "If a "core" educational program tells kids to eat healthy foods and exercise, but the advertisements aired during the program encourage them to eat Twinkies and Fruit Loops, the ads have the potential to undercut the educational and informative value," he argues. Rep Markey cites his Children's Television Act as giving the FCC the power to restrict the ads. He gave the three until May 4 to tell him 1) whether they had examined other countries' efforts to combat childhood obesity, 2) whether they think the commission should limit or eliminate food ads on TV watched by kids, 3) whether they supported disqualifying educational shows with "junk food" ads from the FCC-friendly moniker, 4) and what other ideas they have for flexing the FCC's muscle to ensure station licensees aren't making the obesity and poor nutrition problems worse.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6434327.html
-- See also --
* FTC Takes Issue with Food Marketing to Kids
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
The Federal Trade Commission intends to issue compulsory requests for information about food marketing to kids— much of it on TV— to a broad range of food, fast food and beverage marketers as it tries to assess the breadth of the marketing for a congressional report. Formal notice of plans for the "compulsory process orders" are expected to be announced in a public notice this week, with individual company requests likely being sent out this summer after the FTC seeks public comment and its plan gets a needed OK from the Office of Management and Budget. FTC chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, announced the plans in a little noted April 12 speech to the Food and Drug Law Institute saying the FTC wants to gather a far more detailed view of company food marketing practices to kids than has been readily available.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11891
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