Web Links
Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/
This is a non-profit coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and concerned parents whose efforts focus on the effects of marketing to children, including obesity related issues.
Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU)
CARU is the voluntary industry self-regulation organization that addresses advertising to children. This web site includes press releases and their guidelines.
Commercial Alert
http://www.commercialalert.org/
Commercial Alert is a non-profit advocacy group whose mission is to curb effects of commercialism. One featured campaign focuses on childhood obesity prevention
Digital Ads
Digital Ads provides the most up-to-date compendium of digital marketing campaigns on food and beverages aimed at children. The website offers resources including a report, brief, and other materials compiled and written by the Center for Digital Democracy and the Berkeley Media Studies Group.
Federal Trade Commission
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/foodmarketingtokids/index.shtm
In July 2005, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services jointly sponsored a workshop on marketing, self-regulation, and childhood obesity. They included representatives from the food industry, entertainment industry, scientists, consumer groups and other advertising specialists.
FTC, HHS Release Report on Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/05/childhoodobesity.shtm
This is a report released by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services which outlines a set of definitive steps that the food industry can take towards childhood obesity prevention.
Institute of Medicine: Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth
http://www.iom.edu/?id=21939&redirect=0
The Institute of Medicine has an ongoing project on food marketing and its effects on children's diets. Information on the goals of this project and materials from their meetings are available on their web site.
Public Health Advocacy Institute
This group has done a detailed report on industry self-regulation regarding food advertising directed at children. The history and effectiveness of the industry’s Children’s Advertising Review Unit is covered in detail.
Regulating Food Advertising to Children: An Historical Perspective
http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/23/031/Engle.Oct04.pdf
This is a document from the IOM Meeting on Food Marketing and the Diets of Children and Youth in Washington, D.C., October 14, 2004, by Mary K. Engle, Associate Director of the Federal Trade Commission Division of Advertising Practices, which describes the FTC’s role in regulating advertisement to children as well as the history of child advertising and implications of the first amendment.
Special Report: Food Advertising and Children
http://www.aaaa.org/EWEB/upload/washscene/news_ads_children.pdf
This report examines the actions and positions of the American Association of Advertising Agencies regarding advertising to children and its relationship to childhood obesity. The report also contains an overview of recent and relevant studies.
The Neglected Link between Food Marketing and Childhood Obesity in Poor Neighborhoods
This study establishes a link between food marketing and obesity in low-income neighborhoods.
The Sydney Principles
http://www.iotf.org/sydneyprinciples/
Guiding principles for achieving a substantial level of protection for children against the commercial promotion of foods and beverages. From the International Obesity Taskforce.