Parents and advocacy groups plan to file suit in a Massachusetts court against Viacom, which owns the children’s TV giant Nickelodeon, and Kellogg, a major seller of sugary, fatty foods targeted to kids, to stop them from marketing junk food to young children, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), one of the plaintiffs.
The suit — filed by CSPI, the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, and two Massachusetts parents, Sherri Carlson of Wakefield and Andrew Leong of Brookline — contend that Viacom and Kellogg are directly harming children’s health since most of the foods they market to kids are high in sugar, saturated and trans fat, or salt and are almost devoid of nutrients.
The lawsuit seeks to stop Viacom and Kellogg from marketing junk foods to audiences where 15 percent or more of viewers are 8 or under, and to stop the companies from marketing junk foods through websites, toy giveaways, contests, and other promotional activities aimed at kids.
The Massachusetts law under which the suit if being filed charges companies $25 for every instance of deceptive or unfair advertising. Thus, according to the suit, each time a child saw a junk-food ad for a Kellogg product on Nickelodeon or sees such beloved Nickelodeon characters like Dora the Explorer or Sponge Bob on packaged foods, would be considered a violation.
Interestingly, this announcement comes six weeks after the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report, which found that food advertising aimed at kids gets them to prefer—and request—foods high in calories and low in nutrients.
"Nickelodeon and Kellogg engage in business practices that literally sicken our children,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “Their marketing tactics are designed to convince kids that everything they hear from their parents about food is wrong. It’s a multimedia brainwashing and re-education campaign—and a disease-promoting one at that. And parents are fed up.”
“As a parent, I do my best to get my kids to eat healthy foods,” said Sherri Carlson, a mother of three quoted in the CSPI press release. “But then they turn on Nickelodeon and see all those enticing junk-food ads. Adding insult to injury, we enter the grocery store and see our beloved Nick characters plastered on all those junky snacks and cereals. This irresponsible marketing to young children undermines my efforts as a parent and must be stopped.”
CSPI came up with some startling figures:
"Of 168 ads for food that appeared on Nickelodeon during CSPI’s review, 88 percent were for foods of poor nutritional quality. The September and October issues of Nickelodeon magazine contained seven full-page food ads, all of which were for junk foods. Of 15 foods bearing Nickelodeon characters at a Washington, DC, supermarket, 60 percent were junk foods, including Fairly Odd Parents Orange & Creme Miniatures Kit Kat bars and SpongeBob SquarePants Wild Bubble Berry Pop-Tarts.
"CSPI also reviewed 27.5 hours of Saturday-morning programming to analyze Kellogg marketing. CSPI found 54 Kellogg ads, 98 percent of which were for nutritionally poor foods. (Another Kellogg ad, for Apple Jacks cereal, had previously come under fire from CSPI for disparaging apples, of all things.) Of 80 Kellogg foods found in the supermarket with kid-friendly on-package marketing, 84 percent were for nutritionally poor foods. CSPI found 21 kid-friendly web sites for Kellogg products, all of which highlighted junk foods. And of 92 child-oriented branded items Kellogg had for sale on the web, 82 percent had a logo or mascot from a junk-food brand."
Hurrah to CSPI, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the two parents for taking a stand against a major food and TV company for acting irresponsibly by aggressively marketing sugar-filled food to children.
Perhaps the threat of a lawsuit will induce Viacom and Kellogg to change their intensive marketing practices.