[A-List] UK corporate society: children's conditioning

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

And where will "our boys" be in the future, if they have already choked on
their own fat, or if they present targets too big to miss for the victims of
imperialist adventurism?

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Revealed: how food firms target children

As MPs warn of a crisis advertisers keep parents in the dark

Felicity Lawrence, consumer affairs correspondent
Thursday May 27, 2004
The Guardian

Methods used by the food industry to target children, bypassing parents and
deploying "viral marketing" and "underground communication" have been
uncovered by the Guardian on the day MPs publish a damning account of the
government's "woefully inadequate" response to obesity.

Documents obtained by the Guardian show that the industry is exploiting
sophisticated techniques to market to children without their parents'
knowledge.

A detailed submission by advertising agency Leo Burnett to the Institute of
Practitioners in Advertising for one of its "effectiveness awards" in 2002
explains how its campaign for Kellogg's Real Fruit Winders "entered the
world of kids in a way never done before", and managed to "not let mum in on
the act". Sugars make up over a third of the product, which won a "Tooth
Rot" award in 2002.

The Commons health select committee report on obesity today warns that the
costs of the crisis could be £7.4bn a year, making it impossible for the NHS
to cope. A generation is growing up in an environment which encourages
obesity, with today's children likely to be the first for over a century for
whom life expectancy falls.
In its starkest illustration of the epidemic, the committee cited the death
of a three-year-old child from heart failure directly attributed to obesity.

The report condemns the government's timidity and attacks seven departments
for failing to offer policies to tackle the crisis caused by sedentary
lifestyles and bad diets. MPs were particularly scathing about the secretary
of state for culture, media and sport, Tessa Jowell, saying she was "naive"
about the impact of marketing junk foods to children.

The lengths to which products are specifically marketed at children are
revealed by the campaign for Kellogg's Real Fruit Winders. Using "mutant
fruit characters" the agency says it "spread the word about the brand
virally" - by word of mouth - following an "initial underground
communication" campaign.

It managed to "seed" the characters and a secret language at concerts, in
magazines and cinemas. It also used clothing to place the charac ters with
children's celebrities, gaining exposure on TV shows and music channels
popular with children.

"We have a clear indication that it infiltrated kids' conversations," the ad
agency's submission boasts. It quotes typical responses from children in its
research: "It's cool" and "It is more secret than text messaging - my mum
wouldn't know what was going on."

The Kellogg's Fruit Winder campaign also encouraged children to interact
with it on websites or while retrieving emails. New microsites were created
on websites popular with children.

The advertising agency says it managed to reach nearly 60% of children with
only PR and web activity. It was only after this that it started TV
advertising to reach mothers who are seen as the main purchasers. "Kids were
our main advocates, but mums became willing accomplices once they knew about
the fruit content and the Kellogg's branding."

Kellogg's Real Fruit Winders were awarded the "Tooth Rot" award by the
Parents Jury in 2002, an independent panel of 800 parents set up by the Food
Commission to look at foods marketed to children.

"Kellogg's Real Fruit Winders do contain real fruit, but it has been
processed and supplemented with sugar, hydrogenated fat and other
ingredients with little nutritional value," the jury said.

Kellogg's said that it was keen to see a self-regulatory code work and now
had a new approach to advertising to include mothers. "Clearly that was some
time ago. Since then the debate has moved on. Fruit Winders are a unique
product and are all natural ingredients, with no artificial flavourings. As
a responsible company, Kellogg's will adapt," director of corporate
communication Chris Wermann said.

In its report, the health select committee also attacks the public health
minister Melanie Johnson for compla cency and condemns both sports and
education ministers for endorsing initiatives to give schools sports
equipment or books which required children to buy Cadbury's chocolate or
Walkers crisps.

The MPs also say they were "appalled" by the Walkers' campaign for Wotsits
that "deliberately sought to undermine parental control over children's
nutrition". Walkers Crisps advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers boasts in
its submission for an effectiveness award that its association with Gary
Lineker has been worth sales of an extra 114m packets of crisps over two
years.

The select committee makes more than 70 recommendations for reforms to
school food, labelling, transport and agricultural policies but stopped
short of recommending regulation of TV advertising, calling instead for
voluntary controls.

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'Children will die before their parents'

James Meikle
Thursday May 27, 2004
The Guardian

The warning from the Commons health select committee is stark. "Should the
gloomier scenarios relating to obesity turn out to be true, the sight of
amputees will become much more familiar in the streets of Britain. There
will be many more blind people. There will be a huge demand for kidney
dialysis.

"The positive trends in recent decades in combating heart disease, partly
the consequence of the decline in smoking , will be reversed. Indeed, this
will be the first generation where children die before their parents as a
consequence of childhood obesity," it says

The problem

Obesity in England has grown almost 400% in 25 years, with three-quarters of
the adult population now overweight or obese (around 22% are obese).
Childhood obesity has tripled in 20 years.

The condition has been linked to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, renal
failure, osteoarthritis and psychological damage. The report calculates that
the economic cost in England alone could be £7.4bn a year, a figure that
will rapidly rise.

The causes

"It is clear people are overeating in relation to their energy needs, and
that the cheapness, availability and heavy marketing of energy-dense foods
makes this very easy to do." This is coupled with an increasing reliance on
snacks and ready-prepared meals which makes selecting 'healthy foods'
harder.

Healthy eating messages are "drowned out" by the advertising budgets of
large food companies. Market leaders in the food industry - Coca-Cola,
McDonald's, Walkers - represent "relatively unhealthy food options and are
aimed heavily at children".

Naturally healthy foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables are more
expensive than non-healthy ones. The EU's common agricultural policy
subsidises destruction of good quality fruit and veg while encouraging the
sale of high-fat milk products and wine. Labelling is of ten either
confusing or absent.

Only a third of men and a quarter of women meet the government target of 30
minutes of physical activity five times a week. Children are more sedentary
and television viewing has doubled since the 1960s.

Solutions

Government approach

There is a need for a truly "joined up" approach spearheaded by a Cabinet
public health committee, a recommendation on which the government has
already acted.
A sustained public education campaign such as that to cut down smoking must
be organised. It should highlight the health risks and nutritional and
lifestyle patterns which most contribute to them, including "high risk" food
and drink. This should spread to food labels, with a traffic light scheme
based on the energy density of foods - red for high, amber for medium and
green for low. Both the food industry and government have "embraced the
concept of labelling certain foods as 'healthy' with great enthusiasm,
inviting the obvious conclusion that other foods must be less healthy."

Financial measures

Ministers should keep an open mind on "fat taxes" and remedy "ludicrous" VAT
anomalies by which VAT is levied on ice cream and fizzy drinks but not on
biscuits. Changes in EU agriculture funding must be a key aim.

The government must also ensure that "healthy" versions of foods with
reduced calories and fat remain affordable. Consideration should be given to
giving tax breaks or other financial incentives to employers who encourage
physical activity in their workforce.

The food and advertising industry

Work towards reducing the overall energy density in food, rather than just
targeting sugar, fat and salt separately. Reformulation of food should start
through voluntary agreements.

Schools

Learning to prepare and cook healthy meals should be integral part of
education, not an optional extra. Healthy eating messages will be undermined
if children are exposed to sponsorship messages promoting unhealthy products
or vending machines with unhealthy foods.

Physical activity

The target of physical activity for schoolchildren should be raised from two
to three hours a week with more alternatives to traditional sports, such as
dance and aerobics. There has been a "scandalous failure" by the Department
of Transport to develop a walking strategy, while trebling the amount of
cycling this decade might achieve more in the fight against obesity than any
other single measure. Every government department should encourage activity
in everyday life.

The NHS

The prevention and treatment of obesity has been far too low a priority. GPs
have been limiting prescription of anti-obesity drugs, specialist services
have closed waiting lists and pioneering projects are threatened with
closure through lack of funding. There must be a national strategy, with
treatment options including behavioural and lifestyle approaches,
counselling, drugs and, in the last resort, surgery.