December 4, 2006
Pediatricians call for less advertising to children
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY
Pediatricians should lobby for a ban or severe curtailment on widespread school-based ads, and Congress should prohibit commercials for "junk food" on TV shows watched mostly by young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics says Monday.
The new policy on advertising to kids was prompted by alarm over rising rates of childhood obesity in an atmosphere where kids increasingly are targeted by marketers, says pediatrician Victor Strasburger, the policy’s senior author. Since the pediatricians last weighed in on the issue 11 years ago, ads have cropped up everywhere kids turn: the Internet, cellphones, video games, school campuses and even school buses, Strasburger says.
Last year, advertisers spent $1.4 billion per month marketing to children — 15% more than in 2004, according to James McNeal, a children’s marketing expert and author of The Kids Market: Myths and Realities.
An Institute of Medicine report last year found evidence that food and beverage marketing to children 12 and under leads them to ask for and eat and drink non-nutritious products that are high in calories.
The new policy calls for Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to limit commercials on children’s TV to five to six minutes an hour, a 50% cut from what’s now allowed. The pediatrics group also called on makers of Viagra and similar drugs to run commercials only on shows that air after 10 p.m. These ads "make sexual activity seem like a recreational sport," while birth control commercials that could cut teen pregnancy rates are rarely aired, the policy says.
Ads abound on public school campuses, says Alex Molnar, an educational policy researcher at Arizona State University. Companies sponsor teams, do school fundraising tie-ins and offer educational TV programs. In a 2005 national survey he directed, 83% of public schools reported campus advertising by corporations, and two-thirds had ad relationships with companies selling food of little or no nutritional value.
Critics have singled out Channel One, a firm that provides public affairs shows to more than 7 million middle and high school students. But the company is selective about commercials aired and couldn’t offer its news shows without sponsorship, says CEO Judy Harris.
Ad industry groups last month announced voluntary steps to strengthen their own guidelines on ads to kids and to promote healthy dietary choices. "No company wants to be taken to task for bad practices, and that is a powerful force in a highly competitive industry," says Adonis Hoffman, senior vice president and legal counsel of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
As members of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, makers of drugs for erectile problems voluntarily commit themselves to running ads for such products in slots where at least 80% of viewers are adults, says Diane Bieri of the trade group.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-12-03-pediatricians-ads_x.htm
The new American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Children, Adolescents, and Advertising. http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;118/6/2563
