A few years ago, I saw Marion Nestle speak at Cody's Books. She noted that food companies were worried about future obesity lawsuits. The message I got from her talk was, "They know they're vulnerable to attack." Or as Coca-Cola's Chief Creative Officer Esther Lee, says in this article at AdAge, "Our Achilles heel is the discussion about obesity." So you can imagine their concern at the news that the FTC will conduct a widespread probe into advertising aimed at children and the healthfulness of those products.
From the article:
And it's getting even bigger as the Federal Trade Commission takes the extreme step of issuing compulsory requests for information from 44 food, beverage and quick-service restaurant chains this summer. The goal is to get a "more complete picture" of their kid-marketing practices, especially in the unplumbed arenas of in-store promotions, events, packaging, internet marketing and product placement in video games, movies and TV programs.
