U.S. Ad Industry Tries to Ward Off Obesity Outcry

The U.S. advertising industry is making a concerted defense against public calls for tighter government restrictions on food marketing in light of a growing American obesity epidemic.

The U.S. advertising industry is making a concerted defense against public calls for tighter government restrictions on food marketing in light of a growing American obesity epidemic. A nearly 90-page white paper released on Wednesday by the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) argues that the industry’s self-regulation over three decades have resolved the bulk of questionable food and health claims in advertising and should remain the main mechanism for such disputes. It documents NARC decisions selected from over 900 cases, from breakfast cereals touting enhanced strength to Kentucky Fried Chicken’s recently discontinued ads that implied eating fried chicken was healthy and a good way to lose weight. James Guthrie, NARC President and Chief Executive, said the white paper was the first of its kind to address advertising concerns for a single category. “If a lack of confidence in advertising provokes unnecessary restrictions on information available to consumers, then both producers and consumers will lose,” Guthrie told Reuters. “But there shouldn’t be any need for that. We believe the government hopes and expects advertising can be part of the solution.” NARC sent its white paper last Friday to officials at the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, among others. Officials were not immediately available for comment. Consumer lobby groups and other critics argue that shrewd and costly marketing have influenced U.S. eating habits and contributed to a rising rate of obesity and related deaths, along with overeating and a decline in physical exercise. Nearly 15 percent of U.S. children and adolescents are considered overweight. The figure including adults jumps to nearly two-thirds of the general population. In a sign of their concern at growing public scrutiny, top U.S. foodmakers and restaurant chains, from McDonald’s Corp to Kraft Foods Inc, have been changing they way they serve up meals and reformulating the nutritional contents of some foods. But some activists say the government should bar certain advertisers from marketing food to children at all based on the high calorie or fat content of their products, or if the vast majority of what they sell is unhealthy. “Case-by-case enforcement doesn’t address the kind of foods that are marketed to kids or the fact that marketing to children works to change their preferences,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “You see commercials for sugary cereals, McDonalds and soda pop,” she said. “You don’t see ads for broccoli and strawberries and grapes.” The NARC is a self-regulatory group backed by trade associations including the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers. Founded in 1971, the organization has weathered efforts to ban advertisements to children under the age of 8 in the late 1970s. Its Children’s Advertising Review Unit monitors ads for children under 12 and claims to have a 95 percent success rate in resolving inappropriate marketing. (Source: Reuters Health, June 2004)