WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, today released the responses he received from the Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s and PepsiCo., in answer to his letters asking each to voluntarily implement the same restrictions on marketing to children recently announced by the Kellogg Company. In June, Kellogg agreed to adopt nutrition standards for the foods it markets to children and to place limits on its use of licensed characters and product placements in marketing directed at children. Notably, not a single company responded to Rep. Markey’s central question or used the word ‘Kellogg’ in their response.
“Two years ago the Institute of Medicine linked the current unhealthy trend toward poor nutrition and childhood obesity to the prevalence of television advertisements for fast food, junk food, sugared cereals, and other foods wholly lacking in nutritional value. These top food and beverage companies have an opportunity to play an important role in helping our children make healthier choices,” said Rep. Markey. “I’d like these companies to ‘supersize’ their commitment to public health and take steps to refrain from targeting young kids with certain food marketing – if Snap, Crackle, and Pop can do it, why can’t Ronald McDonald?

“The vague and incomplete responses from these companies, at a time when our country is facing a serious childhood obesity crisis, again raise the question of whether voluntary industry action will be sufficient to combat this important public health issue.”

On June 19th, Rep. Markey asked each company to commit to at least the same standards as those the Kellogg Company laid out in June and to outline additional steps that may be warranted to safeguard kids from junk food ads during children’s television programming, which have been found to negatively influence children’s dietary and nutritional choices. The five companies that received letters are some of the world’s largest food and beverage marketers and account for much of children’s food and beverage advertising expenditures in the United States.

In their responses, the companies declined to conform to the Kellogg standards and did not describe any new self-restrictions they were prepared to undertake. Several of the companies simply described commitments and changes they have already made – all of which fall short of Kellogg’s commitments, in some respect – and only Coca-Cola reported marketing restrictions with any real impact. McDonald’s, PepsiCo, and General Mills told Rep. Markey that they would unveil new initiatives during an informal Federal Trade Commission workshop later this month.

Letters from the 5 companies available here:

Coca-Cola Company
General Mills
Kraft Foods
McDonald’s
PepsiCo.