WSJ: Food makers, ad agencies unite to protect right to market to kids in face of growing criticism.
January 26, 2005: 6:51 AM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. food companies and advertising agencies have created a lobbying group to defend the right to advertise to children, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The group, the Alliance for American Advertising, is the most ambitious effort yet to deflect government regulation or other intervention in food advertising aimed at kids, which critics link to high rates of childhood obesity, the article said.
According to the article, the alliance includes three giant food companies -- General Mills Inc. (Research), Kellogg Co. (Research) and Kraft Foods Inc. (Research) The three companies also rank as the top three advertisers of packaged-foods to children, by virtue of their breakfast cereals, with combined annual spending on kids' ads that approaches $380 million in the United States, the newspaper said.
Other alliance members include the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers and the Grocery Manufacturers of America, the article said.
The group's purpose, according to Wally Snyder, president and chief of the American Advertising Federation, another alliance member, is to defend the industry's First Amendment rights to advertise to children and to promote its willingness to police itself, the newspaper said.
Some members have been meeting on and off for months, although the group has come together formally only in the past week or so, according to the article.
The newspaper said the alliance disputes that there is a link between advertising and childhood obesity, and the alliance will focus on collecting research that examines whether advertising and childhood obesity are linked.
Earlier this month, Kraft said it would stop advertising products like Oreo cookies and Kool-Aid beverages to children younger than 12 as it works to deflect criticism that such foods contribute to childhood obesity.
General Mills, Kellogg and Kraft Foods could not immediately be reached for comment.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/26/news/fortune500/food_lobby.reut/ (yes.. I did 'touch' the filthy CNN but that's only source I have)
January 26, 2005: 6:51 AM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. food companies and advertising agencies have created a lobbying group to defend the right to advertise to children, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The group, the Alliance for American Advertising, is the most ambitious effort yet to deflect government regulation or other intervention in food advertising aimed at kids, which critics link to high rates of childhood obesity, the article said.
According to the article, the alliance includes three giant food companies -- General Mills Inc. (Research), Kellogg Co. (Research) and Kraft Foods Inc. (Research) The three companies also rank as the top three advertisers of packaged-foods to children, by virtue of their breakfast cereals, with combined annual spending on kids' ads that approaches $380 million in the United States, the newspaper said.
Other alliance members include the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers and the Grocery Manufacturers of America, the article said.
The group's purpose, according to Wally Snyder, president and chief of the American Advertising Federation, another alliance member, is to defend the industry's First Amendment rights to advertise to children and to promote its willingness to police itself, the newspaper said.
Some members have been meeting on and off for months, although the group has come together formally only in the past week or so, according to the article.
The newspaper said the alliance disputes that there is a link between advertising and childhood obesity, and the alliance will focus on collecting research that examines whether advertising and childhood obesity are linked.
Earlier this month, Kraft said it would stop advertising products like Oreo cookies and Kool-Aid beverages to children younger than 12 as it works to deflect criticism that such foods contribute to childhood obesity.
General Mills, Kellogg and Kraft Foods could not immediately be reached for comment.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/26/news/fortune500/food_lobby.reut/ (yes.. I did 'touch' the filthy CNN but that's only source I have)