"Overweight and Overwrought: Children's Advertising in the Crosshairs" was one of the sessions held at the Association of National Advertisers' Advertising Law & Business Affairs Conference (Advertising Age coverage; subscription required). The tone of the conference seemed to be that it was time for food marketers to circle the wagons, keep your heads down and learn from the folks who have already made most of the mistakes (aka the tobacco industry). In fact, all of the speakers mentioned in the article are lawyers. And there is now a website offering news and updates on regulatory activities pertaining to marketing to children.
"If you're in the business of selling candy, sell candy; if you're in
the business of selling burgers, sell burgers," he said. Where
marketers need to tread carefully in this high-stakes game of "gotcha"
is in dressing up products as healthy when they're not.
"If you make something that is a treat, full of fat and calories, any implication that it's healthy is dangerous," he said. [Note: that goes for 'all natural' too, just ask Cadbury-Schweppes about 7UP]
Advice was even dispensed on how to write memos summarizing brainstorming meetings in case food marketers ever wind up in court.
If you're involved in kids and food marketing issues at the local or national level (and everywhere in between), consider adding the kidadlaw website to your reading list or have it delivered to your email box (guess they don't believe in RSS feeds).
Well, now that we all have each other's attention.
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