Your corporate overlords have decided that everything is just fine, so don't worry 'bout nothin'.
Food Industry Defends Marketing to Children:
As the marketing of unhealthy food to children comes under increasing fire, food companies have often expressed their view that they would be better off regulating themselves. The government, apparently, could not agree more.
.. In her opening remarks, the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, Deborah Platt Majoras, said that having the government ban the marketing of certain types of foods was “neither wise nor viable.”
Nope, wouldn't want the government to actually regulate any of the industries it is in charge of regulating, that might 'increase costs' of the poor, poor food companies.
Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, sharply criticized the food industry's attempts at self-regulation thus far, which have consisted primarily of supporting a five-person organization called the Children's Advertising Review Board, or CARU. “CARU has become the poster child for how not to do self-regulation,” said Senator Harkin, who was one of the few speakers to use the phrase “junk food.” The board, he said, “has shown itself to be a captive to the industry.” Senator Harkin has introduced a bill that would lift a 1980 ban on the commission's regulating of advertising aimed at children. He highlighted two surveys showing that majorities of consumers favoring some government restrictions on children's advertising. “People are always shocked when I tell them that the F.T.C. has authority over ads to adults but not to children,” Senator Harkin said. The bill has yet to get much Congressional support....The Grocery Manufacturers Association also called for an expansion of the board's staff and annual $650,000 budget. In addition, the association has urged that its guidelines be broadened to include monitoring promotional tie-ins with video games and paid product placement on television shows. An association spokesman, Richard Martin, acknowledged that food companies were not doing much of this. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which said that it was acting on behalf of Campbell Soup, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, Nestlé USA, PepsiCo, Sara Lee and Unilever USA, also said it would look at having the advertising board monitor the popular and much-criticized practice of using licensed cartoon characters in food advertising and packaging.
and I loved this quote:
The association says is it is opposed to nutritional guidelines because it does not believe there are any bad foods. “Any food can be responsibly consumed by everyone, including kids,” Mr. Martin said.
yes, that's just peachy.
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