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May 20, 2013
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The Pop-Tart ChroniclesPosted on Jun 19, 2007By Marie Cocco WASHINGTON—Arrivederci, Apple Jacks. Hello, reconstituted Rice Krispies. “What are we going to do about Pop-Tarts?” wonders David Mackay, chief executive of the Kellogg Company, when I ask about those wretched rectangles of sugar that my kid brother used to scarf down for breakfast. “That’s probably the most challenging within the portfolio.” If we’re talking Pop-Tarts, we’re making progress. For years it’s been obvious that the food industry—more specifically, those companies that push a supersized lineup of ads for nutritional junk on television shows aimed at kids—has played some role in the rise in childhood obesity and the early onset of diseases such as diabetes that can result from kids’ growing girth. Consumer and medical groups have long complained that the ads, which constitute about half the commercials on children’s shows, are hooking kids on sugary cereal and soda, on greasy burgers instead of, say, whole grains. Last year, the Institute of Medicine concluded that television advertising not only influences the “food preferences” of kids under 12, but is also helping to make them fat. The food industry is at last responding by doing something the tobacco industry did not: acknowledging its role in the health threat, confronting the possibility of lawsuits and regulatory crackdowns, and voluntarily changing its ways. Advertisement It’s not easy to please a young palate that’s been trained to think that breakfast is supposed to taste like dessert, or to re-educate a kid who has come to believe that the “fruit” in Fruit Loops satisfies a tier on the government’s food pyramid. Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks and Cocoa Krispies won’t make the sugar cut, which requires cereals to have 12 grams of sugar or less per serving if they are to be advertised to kids. Frosted Flakes will. The science group, along with the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and two Massachusetts parents, had threatened to sue Kellogg and Viacom, parent company of the Nickelodeon children’s television network, over food advertising to children. Kellogg entered into talks with the groups last year, then made its own announcement of advertising policy and nutrition-content changes ahead of the rest of the industry. Ten of the largest food and beverage companies are expected later this summer to come up with individual plans to address nutritionally suspect foods pitched to children. “I hope that it triggers some real competition to have even stronger standards for marketing to children, both with regard to the nutrients and also where they’re going to market,” Jacobson said of the Kellogg initiative. The Internet has become a playground for food companies, which use websites to offer kids games and contests galore while pushing their products. Tie-ins with popular media characters and toys (Kellogg’s Shrek cereal doesn’t come close to meeting the company’s reduced sugar requirements) continue to be the rage. Even now, the Kellogg site pushes a new product—Cinna-Mach I Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts—that fails to meet the new sugar standard and simultaneously appeals to kids by promoting Mattel Hot Wheels cars. Mackay says products already linked with cross-promotion contracts will continue to be governed by them until the contracts expire. So change will come slowly but inevitably—and beneficially. No protracted lawsuits. No contentious fight over regulation. And the crucial part of the Kellogg initiative is that it won’t just change the ads kids will see—it’s going to change, for the better, the foods they eat. That really is the best to you each morning. New and Improved CommentsIf you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy. |
By Cost of TV Advertising, April 20, 2011 at 12:19 am Link to this comment
The amount of sugar in these cereals are appalling. Guess we can forget about the healthy start in the mornings.
Report thisBy Trade Show Displays, December 29, 2010 at 4:07 am Link to this comment
So they should taken to tasks of producing sugary products. I grew up eating Kellogg cereals and I am so disappointed that they have shifted their squeaky clean image to that of being a junky king. Come on Kellogg, do the kids a favor and produce some healthy sneaks and cereals.
Report thisBy MEL, June 20, 2007 at 11:46 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Comments on comments….spell check… KELLOGG’s has two G’s…and Froot Loops to Mary and others is Spelled
Report thisFROOT LOOPS not FRUIT LOOPS….Great Research!!!!
By mabell, June 20, 2007 at 5:42 am Link to this comment
I don’t know about you, but my kids don’t do the grocery shopping. If they want junk, I tell them NO.
I make the food choices in my house, not my kids.
Report thisBy Tom Doff, June 19, 2007 at 11:44 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
One good result of this campaign is the warning label on the baby-food jars of ‘Mashed Olives in Vermouth Sauce’, that they should be ‘Shaken, not stirred’.
Report thisBy DennisD, June 19, 2007 at 8:47 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Just another article to place the blame on someone or something other than the people eating the garbage themselves. You can’t legislate common sense Marie so give up. Making lawyers rich by going after companies that give people what they want is not the way to go. Educate the people making the choices and the companies making the crap will disappear all by themselves. We have more lawyers per capita than any country on earth. Enough already.
Report thisBy cyrena, June 19, 2007 at 6:28 pm Link to this comment
Ah Verne, it’s a good article, that speaks to an important issue, which is the commercial brain-washing of a massive part of the population, to consume things that are in effect, BAD for ones health.
And yeah, they’ve been doing it for a long time, we know. Just like the tobacco industry that she mentions. They market the stuff, kids and adults alike are taken in by it, the stuff usually TASTES good, (and the nicotine “feels good”) so they get “hooked”.
Now I’m making a “guess/assumption” that Marie is accoustomed to hearing all sorts of similar references to her surname, because my own surname is the same, (minus the 3rd “C”) as in -Coco-.
And yes, I’ve been associated with everything else that has that same “ingrediant” all of my life. Having the name has never provided a financial link to the proceeds of the profits that sell the same named products. In other words, I doubt if her family owns any portion of “kellog” or any other coporation that uses the name in it’s product line.
In many parts of the world, there is nothing particularly strange about a surname of “Cocco” or “Coco”, but for Americans, it does seem odd. The standard question from the masses to us is: “Is that your “REAL” last name? It is. It was my daddy’s, and his daddy’s before him, and on back to wherever it came from to begin with. So, it was around long before Cocoa-Puffs. Still, I did love that cereal when I was a kid, and my parents let me eat it, because they didn’t know how bad it was for me.
So yeah, this is an improvement.
Report thisBy Skruff, June 19, 2007 at 1:17 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Big Whoop! Ke-double-L-O-double-good-good Kellogg is going to change the way it does business (and has for the 50 years I’ve been watching TV) and as Merle Haggard says “We’ll all be drinking that Green bubble-up and eating rainbow stew.
Fat children are fat not due to what they eat, but hoiw much they exercise. Where are the parents? Do the children now buy the groceries?
Some ideas.
Limit the “seat work” is school. have children be active.
Limit time on the computer make ‘em go outside and play!
4 hours of homework a night is too much. lobby schools to stop this non-productive practice
Buy ‘em a bike for their birthday instead of a video game.
If there are too many Kellogg advertisements on TV put the set out for the trash… there’s nothing good on anyway.
It ain’t McDonalds, Kellogg, Dairy Queen, or advertisements. It’s parents, abdicating their rightful responsibility.
SO enough with the candy rewards already!
Report thisBy Verne Arnold, June 19, 2007 at 6:49 am Link to this comment
I have only one question…how much was Marie Cocco-Puffs paid to writethis article?
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