WASHINGTON – SpongeBob SquarePants and characters like him should promote only healthy food for kids, a panel of scientists said Tuesday.
Food marketing strongly influences what children eat, the Institute of Medicine said in a comprehensive review of scientific evidence on the issue. Overwhelmingly, food and drinks marketed to kids are high in calories and low in nutrition, the report said.
“It’s putting our children at risk,” said panel member Ellen Wartella, psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside.
Many marketing dollars go to product placement, in-school marketing, special-events marketing and licensing popular characters to sell products – for instance, Sponge Bob Squarepants in ads for candy, Spiderman in ads for Pop-Tarts and Winnie-the-Pooh in ads for sugared cereal.
The institute said that such popular characters should only be used to promote products that support healthful diets. At the same time, televis ion and other entertainment media should incorporate story lines that promote healthful eating, the report said.
Some children’s advocacy groups said the recommendations don’t go far enough and called for a ban on junk food marketing to children.
“If marketing to children affects their food choices, then it’s time to stop marketing to them,” said Susan Linn, a psychiatry instructor at Harvard Medical School who helped found the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
These likeable, kid-friendly characters are “being used to manipulate vulnerable children to make unhealthy choices,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who requested the report.
The panel said the government should try tax breaks and other incentives to encourage the shift away from junk food and, if that doesn’t work, Congress should mandate it.
The report said growth in new food products targeted to kids has been huge, from 52 in 1994 to nearly 500 introduced last year.
Obesity rates have tripled over the past 40 years for kids and adolescents from ages 6-19, raising their risk of risks of type 2 diabetes and a range of other diseases.
Food and beverage companies said they’ve taken many steps the committee recommended, making products healthier, shrinking some package sizes and touting healthy lifestyles.
“The growth in the food and beverage industry is in healthier foods,” said Richard Martin, spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “There’s been a sea change in the last couple of years, and I don’t think that’s very well-reflected in this report.”
Ordered by Congress, the study was funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a cost of $750,585, according to the Institute of Medicine. An arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the institute is congressionally chartered to advise the government on medical issues.
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