Big Progress: Additional Food Cos. Limit Ads to Kids
Last month I wrote about Kellogg’s limiting its advertising to kids under 12 to only foods that meet a new nutritional criteria. Well, more than a bunch of new companies have joined them: McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Mars, Hershey Foods, Unilever, Campbell, General Mills, Hershey, Kraft, and Pepsi.
Instead these major food companies will shift their ad dollars to promoting more healthy options in their food portfolio. Like Kellogg’s says they plan to do, some of these food cos. will probably reformulate their products to comply with this self-imposed nutritional criteria. General Mills will only used licensed characters on healthy foods and I hope others follow them. I’m not a huge fan of using licensed characters on children’s products. Managing my son’s whining for backpacks, balls, polyester pajamas all because they have a TV character on them makes my ears bleed (unless if it’s for Charlie & Lola, which I adore). But a battle over Sponge Bob frozen vegetables is one I will gladly lose.
Yes, there are more companies that need to step up to the plate (Burger King, Nestle, ConAgra and Chuck E. Cheese) but this is clearly a big step in the right direction by the food industry overall and a big win for consumers and families specifically.
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