The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing today to examine the "Preliminary Proposed Nutrition Principles to Guide Industry Self-Regulatory Efforts," released by the Federal Trade Commission in April to support First Lady Obama's Let's Move! campaign, and covering foods marketed to children. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade and the Subcommittee on Health held the joint hearing, and heard testimony from federal officials, food and media corporation executives and lobbyists, consumer advocates, and child health experts. The hearing was titled “Food Marketing: Can ‘Voluntary’ Government Restrictions Improve Children’s Health?”
David Vladeck, head of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, testified that the inter-agency working group that created the principles "is considering making significant revisions to its initial proposed principles in crafting its final recommendations to Congress, including revising the marketing principles to more narrowly focus them on those techniques that are used most extensively to market to children." The revisions are based on the many public comments recived during the open comment period, which also included the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative issuing their own "voluntary" principles in response to the FTC proposal. Elaine D. Kolish, Vice President and Director CFBAI also testified at the hearing.
The revisions to the principles now leave out marketing aimed at children 12-17; only those under age 11 will be covered.
"Among other things, FTC staff is contemplating that, with the exception of certain in-school marketing activities, it is not necessary to include marketing directed to adolescents ages 12 to 17 within the scope of covered marketing activities."
FTC is also considering excluding advertising aimed at a general audience and advertising that is part of charitable or community events from its proposal. And it will not recommend banning clowns and cartoon characters--such as Ronald McDonald or Tony the Tiger--from being used to advertise unhealthy foods.
Download the text of the testimony. [PDF]
Download the original proposed principles [PDF].
The changes come following an outcry and major public relations campaign from lawmakers and food and media industry critics--some of whom also testified at the hearing. In particular, a coalition of food and media corporations have organized under the banner "The Sensible Food Policy Coalition," and two of their leading members argued against the proposal during the second witness panel: Jim Baughman of Campbell Soup Company and Dan Jaffe, Executive Vice President, Association of National Advertisers. The group has run an aggressive and high-profile marketing campaign against the proposal, created by PR expert Anita Dunn of public relations firm SKDKnickerbocker. Dunn previously served as President Obama's White House Communications Director.
From FTC's recap of its testimony:
The testimony explains that the Interagency Working Group was convened in 2009 in response to a bipartisan effort led by Senator Tom Harkin and former Senator Sam Brownback. Congress charged the Working Group’s members – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FTC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture – with developing nutrition standards for foods marketed to children and defining the scope of marketing to which those standards would apply. In response to this charge, the Working Group has been developing recommendations to Congress for voluntary principles to guide industry self-regulation. As the member agency with marketing expertise, the FTC’s role has been to develop workable parameters to define children’s marketing.
The testimony details the FTC’s history of support for strong and meaningful self-regulation to improve the nutritional profile of foods marketed directly to children. It states the Commission’s view that regardless of whether food marketing contributes to childhood obesity, marketing can be an effective tool to encourage children to make more healthful choices. The testimony also recognizes that many food marketers have already pledged to play a role in improving children’s nutrition and health through marketing.
The Working Group released preliminary proposed voluntary principles to guide industry self-regulation for public comment in April 2011. During the comment period, the food industry’s self-regulatory program, the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), proposed a uniform set of nutrition principles of its own that is considerably stronger than the current individual pledges of the member companies, and represents “substantial progress by industry,” the testimony notes.
As a result of the many comments received from various stakeholders, and an assessment of the CFBAI proposal, the Working Group is considering making significant revisions to its initial proposed principles in crafting its final recommendations to Congress, including revising the marketing principles to more narrowly focus them on those techniques that are used most extensively to market to children, the testimony states. Among other things, FTC staff is contemplating that, with the exception of certain in-school marketing activities, it is not necessary to include marketing directed to adolescents ages 12 to 17 within the scope of covered marketing activities.
FTC staff is working to develop recommendations on the scope of marketing to children that will cover all the most important aspects of children’s marketing without being unduly restrictive, the testimony concludes.
The Commission vote authorizing the testimony was 4-0.
FTC's original proposal in brief...The principles issued by FTC have two basic tenets: Food advertising and marketing aimed at children up to age 17 should encourage them to choose foods that "make meaningful contributions to a healthful diet from food groups including vegetables, fruit, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk products, fish, extra lean meat and poultry, eggs, nuts or seeds, and beans."
Additionally, the saturated fat, trans fat, added sugars, and sodium in foods marketed to children should be "limited to minimize the negative impact on children’s health and weight."
The principles are in keeping with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and FTC is proposing that the food industry gets on board with the self regulation by 2016; after that year, any food that contains any trans fat, more than one gram of saturated fat, more than 210 milligrams of sodium or more than 13 grams of added sugar per serving should not be advertised to children.
For sodium, the proposal includes interim targets for 2016 and final targets for 2021.
Witnesses for the hearing:
Panel 1
Dr. William Dietz
Director
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Robert Post
Deputy Director
Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
U.S. Department of Agriculture
David C. Vladeck
Director
Bureau of Consumer Protection
Federal Trade Commission
Panel 2
Jim Baughman
Senior Marketing Counsel
Campbell Soup Company
Dan Jaffe
Executive Vice President
Association of National Advertisers
Elaine D. Kolish
Vice President and Director
Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative
Beth Johnson, MS, RD
on behalf of Grocery Manufacturers Association
Principal
Food Directions LLC
Margo Wootan, DSc
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Dale Kunkle, PhD
University of Arizon
John Irons, PhD
Economic Policy Institute
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