| Editor's Note |
Welcome to the
inaugural edition of the Children's Food and Beverage
Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) newsletter. The CFBAI is
a self-regulation program of the Council of Better
Business Bureaus (BBB) designed to shift the mix of
advertising messaging directed to children under 12 to
encourage healthier dietary choices and healthy
lifestyles. Participants in the CFBAI have agreed to
limit advertising primarily directed to children under
12 to healthier or better-for-you products or not to
engage in advertising directed to children under 12.
The CFBAI has launched this newsletter to help
inform the public about program developments, including
updates to participants' nutrition standards that the
CFBAI has approved and posted on the BBB's website. The
newsletter also will include news from the CFBAI's
sister program, the Children's Advertising Review
Unit (CARU), from time
to time.
For more information about the CFBAI
and the 15 leading food, beverage and quick-serve
restaurants that currently participate in the CFBAI,
please visit us at www.us.bbb.org/advertisers4healthykids.
Elaine D. Kolish, Editor
| |
| Initiative News |
New Year Brings New Changes to Children's Food
and Beverage Advertising Landscape
On January 1, the advertising commitments
in the pledges of General Mills, Inc., Kellogg Company,
and the newest CFBAI participants, Nestlé
USA and The
Dannon Company, went
into effect, joining the pledges of the 11 other
participants already in effect.
The CFBAI also
announced in its January 14, 2009 press
release that the
growth in participation to 15 companies, from 10 when
the program was launched in 2006, has significantly
increased the program's media coverage.
According
to the latest data available from Nielsen Media Research
for the year 2007, Georgetown Economic Services has
found that the 15 CFBAI participants accounted for more
than 80 percent of the food, beverage and restaurant
commercials that children between the ages of two and
eleven saw on children's television programming that
year. The 10 original participants accounted for about
two-thirds of the food, beverage and restaurant
advertising on children's programming, based on 2004
expenditure data.
To help the public better
understand the commitments of its participants, the
CFBAI has prepared a chart
summarizing the nutrition criteria of the 15
participants that determine what products may be
featured in advertising primarily directed to children
under 12, and a list of
qualifying products that the participants may advertise
to children under 12 during 2009. Updated versions of
the chart and list will be posted on the BBB website
periodically.
The list includes products such as
apples, yogurts, yogurt parfaits, peanut butters,
whole-grain cereals, 100 percent fruit or vegetable
juices, milk, water, macaroni and cheese, and lower
calorie or portion-controlled snacks such as crackers
and frozen treats. In some instances, the product names
are the same as before, but the products have been
reformulated to meet the company's nutrition criteria
for better-for-you foods.
|
CFBAI Agrees to Request Regarding Status of
Underwriting Credits on Public Television
Children Now, National
PTA and two children's non-profit health organizations
requested that the CFBAI consider corporate underwriting
credits on public television programming to be outside
the scope of the advertising commitments of its
participants. Current underwriting rules and policies do
not permit an underwriting credit to depict or mention a
particular food or beverage product, even a healthy or
better-for-you product. Under PBS and FCC rules such
credits are not considered advertising and are strictly
regulated. In light of this, the CFBAI agreed that
on-air acknowledgements of participants' underwriting
that comply with PBS and FCC requirements are not
covered by the CFBAI program. As a result of this
interpretation, participants may provide funding to and
receive on-air acknowledgements during children's
programming on public broadcast stations without
depicting better-for-you products, as would otherwise be
required under their pledges.
Click
here to see the inquiry to CFBAI
Click
here to see CFBAI's response
|
Sodium Developments
The CFBAI approved three participants'
requests to include or update sodium limits in their
nutrition standards. The Campbell Soup Company revised its standards to set a 480 mg
sodium limit for most of the soups that it advertises to
children. Burger
King Corp. added a 600
mg sodium limit for the kids meals it advertises to
children. Kraft
Foods lowered the
sodium limit for its Sensible Solution "Convenient Meals" category to 840 mg,
from 910 mg.
|
New Resources Page on CFBAI Website
CFBAI's website now
includes a Resources page that provides parents and children
with links to websites sponsored by some of the nation's
leading nutrition-related organizations. These sources
present helpful and engaging information on healthy
diets and lifestyles.
| |
| EVENTS |
CFBAI Vice President to Speak on CDC Childhood
Obesity Panel
Elaine
Kolish, Vice President
and Director of the CFBAI, will participate in the
panel, "What Can We Do about the Effects of Food
Advertising on Childhood Obesity?" The panel is part of
the CDC's 20th National
Conference on Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion. For more information about the conference
visit www.cdc.gov/NCCDPHP/conference.
|
CFBAI Staff
The
CFBAI welcomed two new staffers recently. Caitlin Burke joined the BBB as the program's
Administrative Coordinator in September 2008. Maureen Enright joined the CFBAI as its Assistant Director
in January.
| | |
|
|
|
| Pledge Updates: July 2008 to
February 2009 |
Burger King Corp.
Burger
King Corp.'s nutrition
standard for kids meals now includes a 600 mg sodium
limit and a requirement that such meals provide at least
10 percent of the daily value of at least two nutrients
targeted for increased consumption by children. The
CFBAI also approved a Burger King Corp. pledge amendment
that permits it to advertise individually the milk and
sliced apple side dishes of the kids meal it is
currently advertising.
|
Campbell Soup Company
The
Campbell Soup Company
amended its nutrition standards, setting a new sodium
limit of 480 mg for most of the soups it advertises to
children. Campbell's also may advertise two other
better-for-you soups:25 percent Less Sodium Chicken
Noodle Soup, based on its sodium reduction, and Tomato
Soup, based on its nutrient content (it contains a full
serving of vegetable and 10 percent of the Daily Value
of Vitamin C).
|
Kraft Foods Global, Inc.
Kraft
Foods reduced the
upper sodium limit for its Sensible Solution "Convenient Meals" category to 840 mg. The
company also added three of its Kraft Singles flavors to
its pledge. These products meet Kraft's Sensible Solution criteria for its "Cheese and Dairy"
category because they have 25 percent less fat than the
reference food. The company's amended pledge also
dropped its cereal category as Kraft sold its Post
cereal brand last summer.
|
PepsiCo
PepsiCo
added its Smart
Spot "Cereals" nutrition
category to its pledge and two qualifying cereals to its
advertising list: Cap'n Crunch and Cap'n Crunch's
Crunchberries. These cereals also meet FDA's "healthy"
definition. PepsiCo also dropped its snack category from
its pledge for 2009.
|
Unilever
Unilever
revised its nutritional guidelines for children's
advertising to reflect the production of dairy-based
frozen novelties made from low-fat milk as well as
fruit-based products that may be produced in the future.
| |
| Children's Advertising Review Unit
|
CARU Issues Guideline for Advertisers on Mealtime
Depictions in Children's Ads
CARU, after consulting with the
nutritionists on its Academic Advisory Board and members
of the food subcommittee of its Supporters Council, has
issued a new guideline in the form of a footnote
regarding the meaning of a "nutritionally balanced
meal." CARU has guidelines for national advertising primarily
directed to children under 12 that includes guidance on
how foods and beverages should be depicted. (The CFBAI
focuses on "what" products are advertised, while CARU
focuses on "how" all products are advertised.)
The guidelines advise advertisers that
"advertisements representing a mealtime should depict
the food product within the framework of a
'nutritionally balanced meal.'" (Section (b) of the
Guidelines, entitled "Product Presentations and Claims,"
subsection 9). Previously, the guidelines advised
advertisers who depict meals to do so within the
framework of a balanced diet. In
2006, as part of an updating of the CARU guidelines, the
word diet was replaced with meal.
The footnote, issued in fall 2008,
now includes the following language to help advertisers
know CARU's expectations regarding what constitutes
appropriate advertising to children when mealtimes are
depicted.
"While there may be a number of
acceptable ways to depict a nutritionally balanced meal
for children, each depiction should contain at least
three of the five major food groups, preferably
including those food groups recommended for increased
consumption by current USDA Dietary Guidelines for
Americans and My Pyramid (i.e., fruits, vegetables,
fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products and whole
grains). The food included in the meal should reflect
reasonable portion sizes and types of foods appropriate
for children in the meal setting depicted. For example,
a reasonable depiction of carrots may contain an
appropriate side-dish portion for a child, rather than
one or two condiment-size sticks. If the meal includes a
caloric beverage, the beverage should be one that is
appropriate in a nutritionally balanced meal taking into
account the beverage's nutritional attributes and its
calories within the context of the meal
depicted."
For more information about CARU,
contact Wayne Keeley, Vice President and Director, at
wkeeley@CARU.bbb.org.
| |
| Manage Your Subscription
|
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this
newsletter, please enter your email address below.
Add Remove
| | |