Posts Tagged ‘fast food’
Posted on Friday, February 14th, 2014 by Michele Simon
By focusing on marketing, Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign won’t save our children’s health
Michelle Obama is probably the most popular first lady in recent memory, with approval ratings embarrassingly higher than her husband’s, at least in 2012. She is the picture of health, speaks openly about the challenges of raising two daughters and feeding them right and uses her platform to call attention to the country’s childhood obesity crisis through her Let’s Move program. And yet, with all this going for her, even she cannot make a serious dent in the problem of how food and media corporations are targeting children with junk-food advertising. Read rest at Al Jazeera America ….
Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Marketing to Children | Tagged: Big Food, child nutrition, childhood obesity, fast food, junk food, Let's Move, McDonald's, Obama, voluntary self-regulation | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Monday, December 16th, 2013 by Michele Simon
by Michele Simon and Cara Wilking
Looking back at 2013, while the food movement made progress in certain areas (such as school food and GMO labeling), when it comes to exploitative food marketing to children meaningful change remains elusive. Let’s Move director and White House chef Sam Kass recently acknowledged the obvious when he said this issue was “really tough” given how much money is at stake for industry.
All we seem to hear from the major food corporations about marketing to children are self-serving promises and announcements of future changes. As public health lawyers, that got us wondering, who’s making sure even these minimal commitments are being kept? The question is worth exploring if we want to actually improve children’s diets—not just create positive PR buzz for Big Food. With reports of adults ever-deteriorating eating habits in 2013 coupled with appalling teen heart health, the health stakes are too high to just wait for the food industry to do the right thing.
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Food Law, Food Policy, Industry Tactics, Marketing to Children, Public Health | Tagged: advertising regulation, Big Food, child nutrition, childhood obesity, fast food, junk food, Let's Move, targeted marketing | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (0) |
Posted on Wednesday, June 26th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Last week at a childhood obesity conference, I participated in an important panel to discuss what has become a controversial strategy among some advocates for children’s health: calling on industry to market “healthy” food to children.
As Susan Linn and I explained in our recent article, any marketing to children is deceptive and harmful; it doesn’t matter what the product is.
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Marketing to Children | Tagged: Big Food, childhood obesity, fast food, General Mills, Kellogg, McDonald's, targeted marketing | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Monday, June 17th, 2013 by Michele Simon
By Susan Linn and Michele Simon
In response to the public outcry over the negative impacts of junk food marketing to children, food companies have started using popular media characters to market “healthy” foods to children. These products include fruits and vegetables, as well as processed food. So we now have Campbell’s Disney Princess “Healthy Kids” soup, Kellogg’s Scooby-Doo! cereal (with less sugar), and others.
But is this really progress?
The developmental vulnerabilities of children, along with the legal, ethical, and political pitfalls of encouraging the food industry to target kids, make marketing food to children harmful regardless of nutritional content.
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Marketing to Children | Tagged: Big Food, child nutrition, childhood obesity, fast food, Kellogg, McDonald's, voluntary self-regulation | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (30) |
Posted on Wednesday, May 29th, 2013 by Michele Simon
Last week at McDonald’s annual shareholder’s meeting, CEO Don Thompson got caught off-guard when a team of 15 advocates, led by Corporate Accountability International, descended upon corporate headquarters to question the fast food leader’s relentless exploitation of children and communities of color.
Read rest at Corporate Accountability International ….
Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Industry Tactics, Marketing to Children | Tagged: child nutrition, childhood obesity, fast food, junk food, McDonald's, nutrition labeling, targeted marketing | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (2) |
Posted on Friday, December 7th, 2012 by Michele Simon
Last week, the National League of Cities, which represents over 19,000 cities, villages and towns, hosted its annual meeting in Boston, with one of its three aims to “strengthen neighborhoods and families.” What better way to accomplish that goal than to challenge fast food’s influence in their communities? While a couple of conference sessions featured First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! program, missing from the agenda was the role fast food plays in communities. That’s why Corporate Accountability International released a report and action guide earlier this year called “Slowing down fast food: A policy guide for healthier kids and families” – to fill this void. Read rest at Corporate Accountability International…
Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Public Health | Tagged: Corporate Accountability International, fast food, Let's Move, McDonald's, zoning restrictions | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 by Michele Simon
It’s hard not to get depressed over the politics of food these days, given the massive power of the food industry to influence everything from the farm bill to childhood obesity.
So a new report, Slowing Down Fast Food: A policy guide for healthier kids and families, on how we can fight back couldn’t come at a better time. A joint project of Corporate Accountability International and Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg and Monica Gagnon of The City University of New York, the guide focuses on four local policy approaches: school policy, “healthy” zoning, curbing kid-focused marketing, and redirecting subsidies to healthier businesses. (Full disclosure: I am a consultant for Corporate Accountability.)
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Posted in Big Food, Child Nutrition, Public Health | Tagged: Corporate Accountability International, fast food, zoning restrictions | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
Posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2011 by Michele Simon
While most media outlets dubbed it the “Happy Meal toy ban,” the ordinance passed in San Francisco last year didn’t ban anything. The law just placed a few reasonable nutrition guidelines (a maximum of 600 calories per meal and limits on fat and salt, for example) for restaurants using free toy incentives to lure kids into a lifetime of bad eating habits. In a rare victory for children’s health, the bill passed despite heavy lobbying by McDonald’s. Read rest at Grist…
Posted in Marketing to Children | Tagged: Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, fast food, McDonald's, San Francisco, targeted marketing, toys | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (3) |
Posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 by Michele Simon
Last week, I didn’t really have much to say about the replacement of USDA’s infamous food pyramid with the new plate image, which is why I was happy to cross-post Andy Bellatti’s take, which I obviously agree with. But this week a couple of media outlets asked for my opinion, and it should come as no surprise that I do actually have one, in particular in response to the many other reactions.
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Posted in Big Food, Public Health | Tagged: Dietary guidelines, fast food | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (16) |
Posted on Monday, May 9th, 2011 by Michele Simon
For most of us working in food policy, it’s hard to remember a time when food outbreaks of bugs like E. coli didn’t happen pretty much weekly. But reading the new book Poisoned by Jeff Benedict made me realize that bacteria-contaminated hamburgers are a relatively recent phenomenon; a striking reminder of how our food system has gone very, very wrong.
Given that the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak happened back in 1993, it seems odd that no one has written a book about it before. But it’s just as well, because Benedict’s style is tailor made to the task. His detailed and heart-wrenching story-telling makes the 18-year wait well worthwhile.
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Posted in Food Safety, Public Health | Tagged: fast food, food safety | Michele on Google+ | View/Add Comments (1) |
