Guidance Documents: Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents

Since 1980, childhood obesity rates have tripled among adolescents and doubled among younger children. While many factors contribute to childhood obesity, regardless of the causes, responsible marketing can play a positive role in improving children's diets and physical activity level. The FTC has been actively working with government agencies, consumer advocates, academics, and industry to foster creative and effective self-regulatory initiatives to help combat childhood obesity. Among other things, the agency has conducted workshops, issued a series of reports on marketing, self-regulation and childhood obesity, and published a study on television food advertising. Use this site to learn about the FTC's efforts to address marketing issues and childhood obesity. You can find information about reports and studies, past workshops, monitoring and research, and speeches, statements, and articles.


Reports & Studies

July 2008
The FTC issued a report examining the marketing of food and beverages to children and adolescents. The report found that 44 major food and beverage marketers spent approximately $1.6 billion to promote their products to children and adolescents in 2006. The report also tracked the food and media industries’ progress in response to the FTC’s recommendations in its May 2006 report, and documented steps taken to encourage better nutrition and fitness among the nation’s children. The report included recommendations for both food and beverage industry members and entertainment and media companies to expand and strengthen their initiatives on food marketing to children.

June 2007
The FTC’s Bureau of Economics released research on children’s exposure to television advertising. The research found that today’s children see more promotional ads for other programming, but fewer paid ads and fewer minutes of advertising on television. The research looked at television ad exposure for children in the year 2004 and compared it to similar research from 1977. The report also found that children are not exposed to more food ads on television than they were in the past, although their ad exposure is more concentrated on children’s programming.

May 2006
The FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a joint report on their co-sponsored May 2005 workshop, “Perspectives on Marketing, Self-Regulation, and Childhood Obesity,” that recommended concrete steps for changing marketing and other practices to make progress against childhood obesity.


Workshops

December 2009
The Federal Trade Commission hosted a public forum on December 15, 2009, titled “Sizing Up Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity.” The forum discussed current research on the impact of food advertising on children, the statutory and constitutional issues surrounding governmental regulation of food marketing, and the food and entertainment industries’ progress toward self-regulation and implementation of the recommendations in the FTC’s 2008 report, Marketing Foods to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation. In addition, the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children – comprised of representatives from the FTC, Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and U.S. Department of Agriculture – reported on the status of recommended nutritional standards for foods marketed to children. An agenda, transcript, archived webcast, and panelists’ presentations are available here.

July 2007
A forum, “Weighing In: A Check-Up on Marketing, Self-Regulation, and Childhood Obesity,” offered members of the food and media industries and self-regulatory groups an opportunity to report on their progress implementing initiatives in response to the recommendations set forth in the 2006 report, and for other stakeholders to comment on that progress. An agenda, transcript, archived webcast, and panelists’ presentations are available here.

May 2005
The FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services sponsored a workshop on marketing, self-regulation, and childhood obesity that brought together representatives from food and beverage companies, medical and nutrition experts, representatives from media and entertainment companies, consumer groups, advertising specialists, and other key experts for an open discussion on industry self-regulation concerning the marketing of food and beverages to children, as well as initiatives to educate children and parents about nutrition.

More details, including the agenda, remarks, PowerPoint presentations, transcripts, and video archives of the event are available here.


Monitoring & Research

Orders to File Special Report under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act
For its 2008 study on food and beverage marketing to children and adolescents, the FTC sent compulsory process orders to 44 food and beverage manufacturers, distributors, and marketers and quick service restaurant companies in the United States. The orders were issued pursuant to Section 6(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, as amended, 15 U.S.C. § 46(b).

The report was requested by Congress as part of the bill appropriating funds for the FTC in fiscal year 2006. The Commission first requested relevant information for the study, including empirical data, in a Federal Register Notice on February 24, 2006. The public comments that the Commission received in response did not include enough data for the requested study. After analyzing the responses, the FTC published another Federal Register Notice on October 18, 2006, proposing information requests that would be sent to companies to collect information for the study. It noted that the public comments would be considered before the FTC submitted its request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), if the agency is requesting identical sets of information from more than nine companies, then the agency must receive OMB approval first. After analyzing the comments sent by interested parties the FTC published a Federal Register Notice on April 18, 2007, describing the proposed study and asking for comments on the proposed compulsory process orders that would be sent to companies. Staff reviewed the public comments and sent the requests to OMB for approval. The FTC reviewed the data and compiled a report on the current status of food marketing to children and adolescents.

For its 2011 study on food and beverage marketing to children and adolescents, the FTC sent compulsory process orders to 48 major food and beverage manufacturers, distributors, and marketers and quick service restaurant companies in the United States. As required by the PRA, on September 21, 2009, the FTC published a Federal Register Notice seeking public comment on the proposed collection of information. After receiving and analyzing the public comments, on May 25, 2010, the Commission provided a second opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB clearance for the proposed compulsory process orders. The orders were sent to companies on August 23, 2010, and the companies have until December 1, 2010 to respond to the FTC.

Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children
The Joint Explanatory Statement accompanying the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act (H.R. 1105) included a provision calling for the establishment of an Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children made up of members from the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Trade Commission. The Working Group was directed to conduct a study and develop recommendations for standards for the marketing of food when such marketing targets children who are 17 years old or younger or when such food represents a significant component of the diets of children. The Working Group announced tentative, proposed nutrition standards on December 15, 2009. It will issue a final report after publishing a Federal Register Notice seeking input from interested parties.


Speeches, Statements & Articles

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003


Last Modified: Tuesday, August 31, 2010