Childhood Obesity and Misleading Food Advertising
Authorities Complicit in Child Ill Health, Malnutrition, and Obesity
By Leon Gabriel Zaragoza
The organization, *Consumer Power*, yesterday filed three complaints with the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco) and the Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks (Cofepris) of the Health Secretariat (SSA). These complaints were against two separate products from Kellogg’s and Nestlé, for broadcasting “misleading” advertising aimed at children. This advertising promotes poor eating habits and violates children’s rights as consumers.
Consumer Power charged that federal agencies responsible for ensuring the content of commercials broadcast during children’s programming are accomplices. They claim these agencies contribute to children’s deteriorating health, high levels of malnutrition, and obesity, among other physical ailments. These issues are associated with the intake of industrialized products, and the agencies are failing to enforce laws and apply sanctions.
International agencies have warned that obesity has become an epidemic. Over the past three years, it has risen steadily by 7.4 percent per year worldwide. They report between 160 and 180 million diabetics, and the figure could reach 400 million in the next 13 years due to increasing obesity.
In Mexico, the Mexican Social Security Institute alone has 10 million diabetic patients due to overweight, and 10,000 diabetic foot amputations are performed annually.
Official figures show that the deterioration of eating habits in the country is mainly caused by the cessation of fruit and vegetable intake, which decreased by 30 percent in 14 years.
At a press conference, the director of Consumer Power, Alejandro Calvillo, said that reported multinationals “dictate the country’s nutrition policy, to the extent that they had the power to prevent Congress from legislating in this area.”
“We are demanding the SSA apply the largest fine issued in the law to Nestlé, for Choco-banana ice cream ads, inviting the replacement of natural food consumption with ice cream,” he said.
He added that Kellogg’s was sued administratively because of the image handling in advertising for Choco Krispies and Frosted Flakes, suggesting that consuming such products allows for unusual physical activity.
Besides, he asserted that the ads talk of a Choco Krispies allowing “growing big and strong” with “forticalcio”, which is a hoax.
He reported that the allegations are supported by scientific references, which show that most children cannot distinguish between a program and an advertisement until eight.
He exemplified this with a recent study of children aged 9 to 11, which found that 94 percent preferred the food recommendations of Tiger Tony (Kellogg’s mascot) and Ronald McDonald over those of their parents.
He stated that two elements are essential for the effective protection of children’s rights:
- The recognition that they are consumers, as accepted by the industry itself.
- The existence of a higher threshold of deception in advertising aimed at children.
He cited that until the 1980s, promotions were targeted at adults because the public perception was that “children were shaped by their parents in the consumer socialization process.” This situation changed in the 1990s when the industry began to see children as “autonomous consumers.”
In the 1980s, American children spent more than $6 billion annually and influenced their families’ decisions to spend $132 billion per year. Recent studies indicate that children aged three to five decide on spending $1.5 billion and influence the spending of $15 billion more. Children aged four to 12 spend $27 billion and influence their parents’ spending by an estimated $188 billion.