الثلاثاء، مايو 09، 2006

Stop Junk-Food Ads Aimed at Kids!


The calls to limit the marketing of junk food to kids through food, advertising and entertainment had risen again.

The ads aimed to children of junk and high calories food should be restraint, and companies should reduce these ads. The philosophy of these ads should be revised also. The advertising agencies are concentrating on cartoon characters to promote for their products which in television and other media to raise more attention of children.

The federal government had risen lately this issue in the United States. Also the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Trade Commission had released a report industries should voluntarily set the minimum nutrition standards for foods that can be marked to the children.

A similar issue was raised last year by the Institute of Medicine. It said that Congress should mandate changes if the food and beverage manufactures fail to promote healthful products in the next two years. Thus the national science advisory panel said licensed characters should be used to promote healthful products.

The Children Advertising Review Unit (CARU) has been taken action against companies when it considered an ad to be deceptive or inappropriate for the intended age. CARU is considering more stringent requirements on the newer media including internet; hence new rules on the kinds of foods that should be marketed to kids.

According to these recommendation and raised issue many companies had already started to make some effort in this way. Kraft Foods Inc. announce last year it would stop advertising less nutritious products on television, radio and in magazine aimed at children under 12. Also Kraft and Pepsi Co Inc. have reformulated many of their products to reduce fat and trim portion sizes.

On the other hand, the report did not call for further government regulations. This was pleasant for some industries and institutes, but Gary Ruskin, executive director of the public advocacy group Commercial Alert, commented: "The report merely recommends more self-regulation, which has historically been a dismal failure."

posted by Eng. Wasim @ 5:15 م