Companies faulted for food marketing aimed at kids

Most food and entertainment companies do not have protections to guard against marketing their sugary treats to children, a new study has found.

The Centre for Science in the Public Interest, based in Ottawa and Washington, identified 128 large companies that market food to children. The organization then analyzed their policies on marketing food to kids, and gave an F to three-quarters of them — either for having weak policies or for failing to have any policies whatsoever.

No company earned an A. The highest grade — the lone B+ — went to Mars, Inc. Its policy excludes marketing to children under 12 and covers most of the key marketing tactics used to reach children, with the exception of on-package marketing.

Many of the largest companies, including Nestle, Kraft Foods, Hershey Company and General Mills landed B minuses. Walt Disney Company, Sesame Workshop, Unilever and McDonald's fared worse, falling in the C range.

Krispy Kreme Doughnut Company, the Cartoon Network, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Chuck E. Cheese's scored Ds.

Other kid favourites flunked altogether for having no policy at all, including Hasbro, Inc., Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Lucasfilm Ltd., Pokemon Company, Scholastic Inc., Sony Play Station and Wendy's.

The public-health advocates say the industry's self-regulation system for this $2-billion annual marketing expenditure is failing kids.

"Despite the industry's self-regulatory system, the vast majority of food and entertainment companies have no protections in place for children," said Margo Wootan, the centre's nutrition policy director.

"If companies were marketing bananas and broccoli, we wouldn't be concerned. But instead, most of the marketing is for sugary cereals, fast food, snack foods and candy. And this junk food marketing is a major contributor to childhood obesity."

Of the 128 companies analyzed, 68 per cent did not have a policy for food marketing to children.

A larger proportion of food and beverage manufacturers (64 per cent) had marketing policies than did restaurants (24 per cent) or entertainment companies (22 per cent), but these policies often failed to include digital marketing or on-packaging promotions. Meanwhile, restaurants and entertainment companies often team in cross-promotions to sell unhealthy meal choices to kids, the study found.

For example, Lucasfilms is licensing Star Wars toys as a premium to go with McDonald's Happy Meals, many of which are nutritionally poor, notes the report, released Tuesday.

Further, half the restaurants (50 per cent) and entertainment companies (54 per cent) with marketing policies did not have nutrition standards attached to these policies.

And among all types of companies with marketing policies, there is a distinct lack of uniformity when it comes to nutrition standards.

Standards were strongest for saturated fat and trans fat among all types of companies. Meanwhile, it was common for them to have weak policies or no policy for sodium and added sugar.

And across all companies, a requirement for marketed food to provide positive nutritional value, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables or vitamins, was often weak or not included in the nutrition standards.