DO SPONGEBOB SquarePants cereal and Scooby-Doo fruit snacks make kids fat?
Betsy McKay

Wall Street Journal, 1/27/05

Amid a growing battle over how food and beverages are marketed to children, the question is surprisingly tough to answer. While it might seem obvious that bombarding kids with sales pitches for cartoon- character cereal and snacks contributes to the obesity epidemic among U.S. children, scientists say the hard evidence is thin.

In one of the few studies so far, Stanford University researchers in 2001 found that watching food ads on TV can influence preschoolers' food choices. The study showed that preschoolers who were shown videos with food commercials were more likely to ask for those foods than preschoolers who watched videos without ads.

Trying to fill the void of solid science on marketing and childhood obesity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sponsoring a major study of the effects of food marketing on the diets and health of children. The agency wants to lay a scientific foundation for the possible tightening of government oversight of food marketing if proof of a link is found. The CDC also hopes the research will teach the agency itself how to harnass the power of marketing to convince kids to pester their parents for carrots and celery sticks instead.

The study, now under way, is being conducted by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences that advises the government on scientific and health issues. A second study led by the CDC is examining how to get kids more interested in healthy foods. The federal government last undertook a comprehensive study on food marketing to children in 1978, when public concern that television ads were leading to childhood dental cavities and other problems prompted the Federal Trade Commission to consider regulation. The agency abandoned the effort in 1981 after its staff and Congress ruled against restrictions.

"For the government to write guidelines or institute more-formal policy, we have to be very clear about what the science says or doesn't say," says Casey Hannan, policy director for CDC's division of nutrition and physical activity. The panel also will try to determine the biggest gaps in research connecting obesity to marketing.

Many nutrition and food-policy experts say enough indirect evidence already exists linking advertising and childhood obesity to justify restrictions. "I've got five inches of papers that document the effect of food marketing on kids," says Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University and an outspoken critic of food-industry marketing practices.

In a 2003 report on diet, nutrition, and preventing chronic diseases, the World Health Organization concluded that the evidence of a link between junk-food marketing and childhood obesity was strong enough to warrant action, and subsequently said governments should discourage ads that promote unhealthy eating to children. The European Union threatened last week to impose restrictions on advertising to children if the industry doesn't make its own moves.

But even the CDC's study may not go far enough to prove beyond any doubt that clever food marketers are making kids fat. "There's not going to be a smoking gun," says Susan Linn, a psychologist at Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston and author of "Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood." "Why is the burden on the underfunded public health community to prove this? Where is the evidence it isn't having an effect?"

Recent moves by the food industry make government action even more urgent, say nutrition and child-health advocates. A new lobbying group formed recently by food companies and advertising agencies plans to fight restrictions by touting self-policing efforts and research supporting its right to advertise to children.

A lack of regulation means that companies are setting their own rules about what they market. Kraft Foods Inc. said it won't advertise regular Kool-Aid to kids between six years old and 11 years old, but will continue to market its sugar-free version to them. In a small symbol on its box, General Mills Inc. touts Cocoa Puffs cereal as a good source of whole grain, although a one cup serving has only one gram of dietary fiber.

In a report last year, the American Psychological Association recommended restrictions on ads aimed at children under eight years old, concluding that they are prone to accept advertising as truthful and unbiased. An IOM report on childhood obesity published last September concluded that food marketing can affect children's food choices, urging the food and beverage industries to develop and "strictly adhere" to marketing and advertising guidelines that would minimize the risk of obesity.

The CDC's effort to sift through the evidence was prompted by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who won Congressional approval for $1 million in funding for the two studies. Food and beverage companies spend an estimated $10 billion to $12 billion a year pitching products to children and adolescents, the IOM says. A proliferation of new media has expanded their reach beyond television and print advertising to the Internet, videogames and cell phones. The typical child now sees about 40,000 TV ads a year, according to a report on the role of media in childhood obesity by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit foundation focusing on health-care issues.

"There isn't a place where children go in their day where they're not encouraged to eat," says Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit advocacy group that is urging restrictions on marketing to children under 18 years old.

The committee sponsored by the Atlanta-based CDC includes nutritionists and psychologists who have documented negative consequences of food marketing, as well as scientists who have served as consultants to food companies and a former FTC official. The panel expects to deliver its report to the CDC by early September.