Sara Lee Agrees to Limit Food Marketing to Kids

Sara Lee is the latest food company to join theCouncil of Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Initiative.

Sara Lee has joined 16 other companies in pledging
to only market products to kids 11 and under that meet government or
American Heart Association standards for "healthy" foods.

Sara Lee has promised that all TV, online, radio,
print and other ads directed to an audience that is "primarily" under
12 will meet those guidelines.

The company will also restrict the use of
third-party licensed characters in ads targeted to child audiences, will not
advertise its products in elementary schools, will not do any product placement
in primarily under-12 audience ads and will "limit" the use of food
and beverages in interactive games.

The initiative was launched in July 2007 at a
Federal Trade Commission hearing on food marketing to kids and childhood
obesity.

Others participating in the initiative include Burger King, Campbell
Soup Company, Coke and Pepsi, Dannon, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg,
Kraft Foods, Mars, McDonald's and Nestlé.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.