Food companies in new advertising probe

Albuquerque News.Net
Tuesday 29th July, 2008

The US Federal Trade Commission has found the nation’s largest food and beverage companies spent about $1.6 billion in 2006 marketing their products to children.

The FTC has gained new insight into how much companies are spending to attract youth to their products, and what new techniques the companies are using for their marketing.

The commission’s report came about after legislators started taking an interest in obesity rates in children.

Overall, the spending was much less than some previous estimates had indicated, but the report found the food industry was not using its innovation to market healthy foods to children.

Spending on soft drinks came to $492 million, with the vast majority of that spending directed toward adolescents.

Fast food restaurants reported spending close to $294 million, which was divided about evenly between children and adolescents.

For cereals, companies spent about $237 million, with the vast majority of that targeted to children under age 12.

The report also found the Internet has become a major marketing tool of food companies for child and adolescent advertising because the online environment is unregulated.

Email this story to a friend

Have your say on this story