ANA Regulatory Rumblings

Frozen in the Past

The Kaiser Family Foundation held a public forum today to release an important report entitled, Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States. According to Kaiser, “The purpose of this study is to paint a picture of the current landscape of food advertising to children on TV, to help inform the efforts of policymakers and the food and media industries and to provide a benchmark for measuring change in the years ahead.”

The Kaiser report may be a useful snapshot of food advertising on TV in 2005, but it is certainly not a “current” representation of the present landscape. The vast bulk of the food commercials analyzed in the report were collected from May through July 2005. As anyone who has been following these issues knows, there have been enormous changes in the marketplace over the last 18 months. In addition, important segments of the advertising community have pledged unprecedented further changes in the coming year.

Let’s take a quick look at how the marketplace is rapidly changing:

• According to a Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association survey of their members, in just the last several years, food and beverage companies have responded to marketplace demand by introducing 10,000 products that provide new low-calorie servings and/or improved health profiles.

• Restaurants, also responding to this demand, have provided numerous healthier menu options, and increasingly, reduced portion size items. In addition, many quick-service restaurants have made salads a major selling focus and promoted juices, yogurt, and low- fat milk as new serving offerings. One quick-service restaurant sells about 50 million pounds of apples annually, much of this as part of their children’s menu.

• As part of the advertising community’s self-regulatory initiatives, 11 companies, representing approximately 2/3 of all food advertising to kids, pledged through the Children’s Food and Beverage Initiative, overseen by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, to devote at least half of their advertising directed to children to promote healthier lifestyles or good nutrition. Participants in the Initiative are Cadbury Schweppes USA; Campbell Soup Company; The Coca-Cola Company; General Mills, Inc.; The Hershey Company; Kellogg Company; Kraft Foods, Inc.; Masterfoods; McDonald’s; Pepsi-Co, Inc.; and Unilever.

• The advertising community, through its public service arm, The Advertising Council, also has greatly ramped up its public service efforts in regard to anti-obesity initiatives. The Ad Council has partnered with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since 2004 on obesity prevention Public Service Announcements (PSAs). The “Small Steps” campaign was launched in 2004 and was expanded to target children in 2005. Since the campaign launch, the PSAs have received more than $270 million in donated media support and the “Small Steps” website attracted an average of 190,000 visits per month during 2006. Just last month, The Ad Council launched a new round of PSAs featuring Shrek characters, urging children to get more exercise.

We Have a Positive Story to Tell

Wednesday was the first formal meeting of a joint government/industry Task Force on Media and Childhood Obesity. The task force was formed several months ago by Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) and FCC Chair Kevin Martin and FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate. It’s intended to be a non-adversarial setting where industry groups, public interest groups and government officials can work together on solutions to the childhood obesity crisis.

ANA is a member of the Executive Committee of the Task Force and I gave a presentation describing the various steps the marketing community has taken to address childhood obesity. My colleague with the Grocery Manufacturers/Food Product Association noted that over the last five years, food and beverage companies have introduced more than 10,000 new or reformulated products that are healthier. A representative from Disney described some of the efforts being made by media companies. Collectively, our industry has spent billions to respond to the childhood obesity crisis.

While more remains to be done, we have a very positive story to tell.

In fact, I believe the marketing community has collectively done more to respond to the childhood obesity crisis than any other segment of society. I specifically challenged the federal government and state and local governments to step up to the plate and increase their efforts to fight this problem. My statement cited some specific areas for progress.

The Task Force will provide us with an opportunity to take a comprehensive look at what’s already being done and to identify gaps that still need to be filled.

National Medical Association Sees Positive Value in Prescription Drug Advertising

The National Medical Association (NMA) today released the results of a recent survey that overwhelmingly demonstrates that African-American physicians see a positive value in prescription drug advertising. According to the report published in the Journal of the National Medical Association, members of NMA believe that DTC advertising provides substantial educational benefits to consumers, particularly in underserved communities. The African-American doctors also believe that DTC advertising helps, rather than hurts, the doctor-patient relationship.

The new report found that NMA members are even more positively supportive of DTC ads now than in a similar survey in 2001. According to the study, 66% of the doctors surveyed attested to the positive benefits that prescription drug ads provide patients. This is up from the 55% positive finding contained in a survey carried out by NMA in 2001. The report acknowledged the numerous steps taken by the pharmaceutical industry over the last several years to address concerns about some DTC ads.

The NMA report is important news, particularly as some members of Congress are proposing sweeping new restrictions on this important category of advertising.

Given the critical role that DTC advertising can play for patients including those who are poor or in underserved communities, we agree with the NMA that there should be more prescription drug advertising, not less.