A consumer watchdog group released last week new guidelines that call on food and beverage makers, broadcasters, restaurants, movie studios, and schools to reform the way drinks, snacks, fast-food meals, and other foods are marketed to kids.

The guidelines, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, for instance, call on companies not to market low-nutrition drinks like soda, sports drinks, and sweetened ice tea to kids.

“Parents are outgunned by food companies and the toys, cartoon characters, celebrities, and psychological munition that food marketers have at their disposal,” CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan, said. “Parents try to get their kids to eat bananas, broccoli, and whole wheat bread, but those messages get drowned out by marketing for French fries, cookies, and candy. What we’re really asking is that marketers act responsibly, and not urge kids to eat foods that could harm their health.”

The advocacy group also calls on companies not to advertise on television shows for which more than a quarter of the audience is children. That means foods like Mrs. Butterworth’s Little Dunkers, for example, could not be advertised on Nickelodeon’s children’s programming.

Each day, children receive about 58 commercial messages from television alone, about half of which are for food. According to CSPI, much of that advertising is for high-calorie or low-nutrition foods and undermines parents’ efforts to provide healthful diets for their kids. While a number of factors affect children’s food choices, studies show that food marketing attracts kids’ attention and affects their food preferences and choices, CSPI said. The amount of marketing aimed at kids has doubled in the last 10 years from $7 billion to $15 billion a year.

Ideally, says CSPI, only healthful foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain products would be marketed to kids. But CSPI’s Guidelines would allow a much broader range of foods to be marketed to kids, as long as the food in question provides some positive nutritional benefit and isn’t too high in saturated and trans fat, salt, or added sugars.

The guidelines would allow companies to use almost any marketing technique to market healthful foods to kids.

In addition, the group asked food companies to limit cross-promotions with kid-oriented movies or television shows, or use of cartoon or fictional characters from such programs. That means Burger King could not use SpongeBob SquarePants to promote burgers and fries, Hostess Twinkies couldn’t use Shrek, nor could the movie Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events be used to promote Procter & Gamble’s Sunny Delight.

Over the last 20 years, rates of obesity have doubled in children and tripled in teens. And, since most children’s diets are too high in calories, saturated and trans fat, and sodium, one-quarter of kids between the ages of five and 10 have high blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol levels, or other early warning signs for heart disease.

“For far too long, food manufacturers, fast-food restaurants, and media conglomerates have been profiting by pushing obesity- and disease-causing junk foods to kids,” Wootan said. “It’s time for them to clean up their act.”

According to the consumer group the guidelines were developed with input from experts from academia, government, and industry.

(via Center for Science in the Public Interest)