Posted on 01/19/2006 4:10:03 AM PST by SheLion
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A consumer group wants to keep Tony the Tiger from promoting sugary cereals on the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon show or anywhere else kids are watching.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest said on Wednesday it would sue Kellogg Co., the maker of cereals such as Frosted Flakes, and Viacom Inc., which runs the Nickelodeon cable network, if the companies do not change some marketing practices aimed at children.
The Center said letters had been sent to Kellogg and Viacom saying it would settle for a commitment from the companies within 30 days rather than sue.
But, the Center added, if its demands were not met, a lawsuit would be filed asking a Massachusetts court to stop the companies from marketing junk foods in venues where 15 percent or more of the audience is under age 8, and to stop promoting junk foods through Web sites, toy giveaways, contests and other techniques aimed at that age group.
"The industry has had decades to clean up its act, but instead it has only intensified its marketing," the Center's executive director, Michael Jacobson, said at a news conference, where he displayed crackers, cookies and other snacks dotted with television characters.
The proposed lawsuit would mark the latest attempt to battle the growing obesity crisis in the United States through the courts. The would be plaintiffs, including the Center, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and two parents, assert Kellogg and Viacom could be forced to pay billions of dollars in damages if found liable in a trial.
A widely watched lawsuit filed in 2002 accused fast food leader McDonald's Corp. of using misleading advertising to lure children into eating unhealthy foods. McDonald's has called the lawsuit frivolous and parts of the case have been dismissed.
KEEPING KIDS AWAY FROM JUNK FOODS
If a suit were filed, it would contend that Kellogg and Nickelodeon are harming children since the overwhelming majority of food products marketed to them are high in sugar and fat.
"It's hard for a parent to compete with so many ads making junk food fun and cool," Sherri Carlson, a mother of three who would be a plaintiff in a lawsuit, told reporters. "Although I have a strict policy against junk cereals in my house ... this doesn't stop my children from asking me for them, especially after seeing enticing ads."
Nickelodeon said in a statement that it is "an acknowledged leader and positive force in educating and encouraging kids to live healthier lifestyles," and that it would continue to encourage advertisers to provide balanced marketing.
The company said it has also licensed its characters for "good-for-you" products, such as a deal that has SpongeBob characters on packages of Grimmway carrots.
A Kellogg spokeswoman said the company just learned about the proposed action, but would "continue to educate and inform consumers of all ages about the importance of both balanced nutrition and physical activity in maintaining a healthy lifestyle."
The Center said that, of 168 ads for food that appeared on Nickelodeon during a review in the fall, 88 were for foods with poor nutritional quality. Nickelodeon characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants appeared on packages of Kellogg's Wild Bubble Berry Pop-Tarts, which the Center categorized as junk food.
The findings follow a study released last month that found ads influence the foods preferred by children, especially the very young.
The Center's Jacobson said his group was forced to threaten a suit because federal regulators and Congress would not enforce laws against deceptive or harmful marketing.
"The (Federal Trade Commission) and Congress have failed to protect families from commercial exploitation," he said.
The FTC's chairman, Deborah Majoras, has said she opposes the idea of imposing new regulations to ban or restrict children's food advertising and marketing.
Majoras has opposed the idea of imposing new regulations on the industry, instead urging more self-regulation and further efforts to educate parents and children about nutrition.
"If there is evidence of illegal deception in specific advertising, the FTC, the states' attorneys general, and the industry's self regulatory bodies can all take action," said Lee Peeler, deputy director of the agency's consumer protection bureau.
(With reporting by Kenneth Li in New York, Nichola Groom in Los Angeles, Susan Heavey in Washington and Jessica Wohl in Chicago)
Hi there!
Imminent Domain for instance? It's getting real bad!!
No, computers designed by grownups ruled the world.
One kid threw a hissy fit, and all the other kids joined in.
You know, if Kellogg stops advertising, and my kids stop eating their bowls of vitamin fortified cereals and the MILK that goes along with them, I may have to sue CSPI. They are putting my children at risk for osteoporosis and stunted growth!
Oh that's another movie then. This one had an 18 year-old male running the works! And when someone turned 30 years old, they were killed off.
Well said!
Well, when six year olds go out and buy cereal with their own money, the argument might be appropriate.
Wild in the Streets
Here:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0063808/plotsummary
I'm a smoker so I know all about it. It was sarcasm but only 40% so.
Years ago we tried to warn the dumbasses that had the attitude I described but they didn't listen. Now the chicken are roosting in their yards. Screw 'em!
Thank you! I know it was quite some time ago. But I still remember it, especially today when everything is "For The Kids."
Speaking of Imminent Domain, did you see the article in the NY Post today regarding the NY Times?
UNFIT TO PRINT
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/60691.htm
Excerpt:
January 19, 2006 -- IT can't be easy covering commercial real estate for The New York Times. Even the most cautious Times journalist wades into a minefield of issues of mortal importance to the newspaper's bottom line and public image. Those issues all relate to the Times Co.'s own plunge into the real-estate business with developer Bruce Ratner, the Times' partner in its new headquarters under construction on Eighth Avenue between 40th and 41st streets.
A smart Times reporter will try to step between the mines: Avoiding the controversies over the paper's relocation insulates a writer from internal interference and outside scrutiny. Occasionally, however, the Times headquarters project must be part of a story for it to make any sense. When such a story still omits the project, it makes for embarrassing reading. What will Byron Calame, the Times' "Public Editor," make of yesterday's long page C5 story on the nationwide debate over eminent domain ignited by a recent Supreme Court ruling?
"Developers Can't Imagine a World Without Eminent Domain," said the headline. True enough. But it ought to have read, "Times Can't Imagine a World Without Eminent Domain."
Years ago we tried to warn the dumbasses that had the attitude I described but they didn't listen. Now the chicken are roosting in their yards.
It's just like that saying "When they came for the Jews." And someday somewhere everyone is going to be hit by some nanny do-gooder government group that is chipping away our freedoms.
I sure wish I had an answer. I guess it takes money. aaarrrrgggghhhhhh
Anytime you see the Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, in an article, send up a red flag. These folks are the whackos who rail against Mexican food, theater popcorn, French fries, etc.
(I had a feeling I spelled Eminent wrong. Oh well).
It's just hard for me to believe that when a person owns their own property or business, they still run the risk of losing it to the government. What kind of world are we living in!
I'm thinking of starting up my own organization. I'll call it I'm A Compulsive Pantload Who Has A Psychologically Twisted Need To Tell Everyone Else In America What To Do And How To Live. It's not exactly a catchy name, but at least we'd have the virtue of being the only such organization in the country that's honest.
Cereals were created as health food... now they call it junk food!
Cereal should be banned full stop - it turns kids into vegetarians! What you need to do is to feed the cereal to animals and then eat them for breakfast. Full English for me please - 2 eggs, 3 rashers of wiltshire farm cured back bacon, 2 thick lincolnshire sausages, 2 thick fried pieces of best lancashire black pudding, fried slice, mushrooms fried in the bacon fat with two rounds of white toast from the village bakery spread with butter from the local farm and washed down with a strong, steaming mug of tea. Now that's breakfast! :)
And you can buy it or not. But we do not need self-anointed saviors to sue in our name. That sugar cereal is harmful has not been proved. It might be as nutritional as the maker says it is.
Surely this "consumer" protection group has not made a scientific finding or they would use it in their threat to sue Kellogg.
Another small group of malcontents with too much time on their hands.
And you can buy it or not. But we do not need self-anointed saviors to sue in our name. That sugar cereal is harmful has not been proved. It might be as nutritional as the maker says it is.
Surely this "consumer" protection group has not made a scientific finding or they would use it in their threat to sue Kellogg.
Another small group of malcontents with too much time on their hands.
And you can buy it or not. But we do not need self-anointed saviors to sue in our name. That sugar cereal is harmful has not been proved. It might be as nutritional as the maker says it is.
Surely this "consumer" protection group has not made a scientific finding or they would use it in their threat to sue Kellogg.
Another small group of malcontents with too much time on their hands.
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