News [1/22/2007 ]         On 19 January, the Federal Trade Commission Chairman, Deborah Platt Majoras, spoke at an Association of National Advertisers meeting in New York in relation to the issue of childhood obesity. In 2006 the FTC, with the US Department of Health and Human Services, asked marketers to strengthen industry self-regulation. The industry responded with the Council of Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. Majoras praised those "positive initial steps", including Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) tackling the "blurring" of the lines between advertising and editorial content, but added that "more remains to be done if we expect to have a real impact on the problem." Majoras said she did not agree with critics who have called the industry actions "wholly insufficient," but she re-emphasised that they were a beginning, not an end, and that food marketers needed to do more to create and promote healthier food and drink options. This includes more companies signing up to the industry pledge to change their marketing practices for ads targeted at kids under 12. In this regard, she publicly praised the use of Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer to sell carrots and spinach, and Disney characters being used to promote fresh fruits and vegetables. "All segments of society," she said, including "government, schools, parents, doctors, food companies, and the media need to take a hard look at what we can do to help improve our children's health." Saying the industry needed to step up self-regulation efforts, she pointed to the Red Flag initiative on deceptive weight-loss claims. "My predecessor, Chairman Muris, and former Commissioner Leary met with members of the media and asked that they 'do the right thing' and refuse to run advertisements that contain "Red Flag" claims," she said. A number, though not all, media responded she said. Red Flagged ads decreased, but not enough, and the FTC sent out warning letters last September to 77 media outlets. "Clearly, this is a segment of the advertising industry where much greater efforts are required," she said. Majoras said that the FTC have begun collecting information from industry for the food marketing report it is required to conduct per its 2006 appropriation. The report will include a study of TV and radio advertising, Internet marketing and product placement. Regarding the same issue, the Federal Communication Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein spoke on 13 January at the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis. He said that he does not see “how interactive advertising” aimed at children “would ever be acceptable”. He was referring to the online use of familiar children’s series characters to promote products as television and computers become more integrated and in his view children “don’t have the ability to distinguish between programming and advertising”. Source: Advertising Education Forum