Obesity

PHAI’s Wilking Authors Piece for Update Magazine on Digital Food Marketing targeting Kids

PHAI Senior Staff Attorney Cara Wilking\’s article, State Law Approaches to Curtail Digital Food Marketing Tactics Targeting Young Children, has been published in the January/February, 2014 issue of the Food and Drug Law Institute\’s Update Magazine.  In the article, Wilking describes why digital marketing, which is inherently deceptive to younger children.  She explains the role of […]

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PHAI Releases Major Report on Digital Food Marketing to Youth: Urges State Attorneys General to Act

December 19, 2013 The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University School of Law, along with our partners at the Center for Digital Democracy and Berkeley Media Studies Group, today releases State Law Approaches to Address Digital Food Marketing to Youth.  It is a first-of-its kind resource that provides an evidence base and action steps grounded in state

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PHAI researchers co-author article in AJPH describing how health advocates battling the food and beverage industry can learn by looking back at the smoking and health crisis of the late 1950s and early 60s

Richard Daynard, Lissy Friedman, and Mark Gottlieb have co-authored an article published today in the American Journal of Public Health, along with our research partners from Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG). The article is entitled: \”Cigarettes Become a Dangerous Product: Tobacco in the Rearview Mirror, 1952–1965.\” BMSG\’s press release appears below: Nutrition advocates may be able

PHAI researchers co-author article in AJPH describing how health advocates battling the food and beverage industry can learn by looking back at the smoking and health crisis of the late 1950s and early 60s Read More »

Is McDonald’s Selling What It Advertises to Kids?

by Cara Wilking, J.D. Since 2008, national advertising for McDonald\’s Happy Meals has not depicted soda as per a self-regulatory pledge made to the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). In a recent pledge with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, McDonald\’s stated that it will not display soda company

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McDonald’s Repeatedly Violates CARU Premium Guideline

In response to a recent study finding that nationally televised fast food television advertisements to children by McDonald\’s and Burger King from 2009-2010 focused primarily on toys, movie tie-ins and branding, CARU Director Wayne Keeley stated that “[b]oth companies have always respected CARU’s recommendations by discontinuing the challenged ads, and pledged to take into account CARU’s

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New study finds McDonald’s and Burger King responsible for 99% of fast-food television ads for kids, suggests industry’s efforts to self-regulate its marketing practices are ineffective

Fast-food companies emphasize toy giveaways and movie tie-ins rather than food products when marketing to kids on television, which suggests that industry is not abiding by its self-regulatory pledges for child-directed marketing, according to a study co-authored by the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of

New study finds McDonald’s and Burger King responsible for 99% of fast-food television ads for kids, suggests industry’s efforts to self-regulate its marketing practices are ineffective Read More »

Study of State Cheeseburger Bills Finds They Go Well Beyond “Tort Reform”

Cheeseburger Bills or Common Sense Consumption Acts (CCAs) were spearheaded by the National Restaurant Association as well as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and have been enacted in 26 states. Media coverage and legislative debates about CCAs were dominated by themes of personal responsibility and the need for tort reform to protect businesses from frivolous litigation.

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Super-Sized Lunchables Solicits Teens to Upload Risky User-Generated Content

by Cara Wilking, J.D. Seeking to capitalize on the public’s insatiable appetite for Youtube stunt videos, Kraft Foods has teamed up with Rob Dyrdek, the host of MTV’s Ridiculousness, to market its recently released Lunchables Uploaded line of lunch kits. Marketed to parents as a way to “Give them more of what they love,” Lunchables

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PHAI Publishes “The Zoning Diet” Kit to Help Communities Limit the Impact of Fast Food and its Advertising

Childhood obesity is a growing problem that poses substantial health risks. Ethnic/racial minorities in low income urban areas disproportionately feel the impact of this problem. The built environment is particularly dense in low income urban areas and impacts a large number of people in a relatively limited space. Fast food and fast food advertising are

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