Shaping Youth BETA BLOG

I serve on the San Mateo County Prevention of Childhood Obesity Task Force and my message when we reconvene next week is this: We’ve gotta get real and ditch the lipservice.

School “wellness” mandates & policy shifts won’t do dookie until we confront media messaging and corporate cashflow infusions working at cross purposes. It’s all about following the fiscal flow. Here’s an op-ed I wrote for the local Times:

Has the media image of California kids shifted from ‘Bay Watch’ to ‘Bovine?’

Both are unhealthy images, with the latter being quantifiably hazardous based on the childhood obesity report released by The California Center for Public Health Advocacy.

With so much ink hitting the press on such a hot topic, bipartisan concerns seem in ‘shock & awe’ that we’re failing to curb the increase of fat vs. fitness in our state. Even experts are confounded that alarming warnings for Type 2 diabetes hasn’t launched a feeding frenzy of regulatory mandates or at least a public outcry.

Gee, I’m not the least bit surprised. Statistics can bloat up until we have a whole generation of pubescent porkers and the problem won’t cease. Why?

Kids will be at risk until we stop allowing corporations whose allegiance is first and foremost to their stockholders to be the guardians of public health.

Put simply, “Show me the money”…you’ll quickly see why the obesity epidemic is flourishing sans roadblocks. We can’t spew anti-obesity rhetoric while padding the pockets of food industry giants and expect results.

From lousy school lunches and lobbyist dollars to billions in media pushing unhealthy crud, just follow the fiscal flow…$12-15 billion is spent in kids’ marketing for fast food chains, restaurants, neon yogurt, liquid candy (soda, ‘juice’ pouches) and a plethora of products that fit into the junk food category.

Kids play free online junk food games (candystand, Millsbury,etc.) watch product placement that takes up an entire movie, (Spongebob Squarepants) receive ‘Big Mac’ shout-outs in subliminal hip-hop media buys, and now are being targeted via cell-phone advertising by mega-moguls like Frito-Lay. (but to name a few)

Two-thirds of the panelists at the heavily touted governmental ‘workshop’ on obesity were hand-picked by the Federal Trade Commission & the Department of Health and Human Services…And (surprise!) they had financial ties to either the food or advertising industries.

Self-regulatory outfits like the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, (CARU) sound like a watchdog group until you see there’s no teeth, no leash, no bite and in reality is a 5-person fiefdom with food industry ties. And the National Advertising Review Council even SOUNDS scary with an acronym like “NARC” but those watchdogs are sleepy hounds too.

Campaign contributions? Try $200,000 a pop for several individuals at Coca-Cola, Florida Crystals Corp., (one of the nation’s major sugar producers) the key lobbyist for ‘Altria’ (owning appx. 85% of Kraft Foods) and more.

Is anyone seeing a pattern here?

Follow the cash infusions to find the failure in curbing obesity! It’s time to shape up:

Titans of industry are in denial about the impact they’re having on our kids. Parents shrug off the issue if they don’t see it reflected in their own homes. And vested interests pointlessly debate whether it’s the “marketing machine for kids’ junk food or the lack of physical exercise” that’s causing the problem.

Who cares when the sum of the equation is the same?

Sedentary lifestyles + poor nutrition = fat kids (multiplied by health hazards/long term societal fallout) As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said, “Fat is a fiscal issue.”

Dollar driven policy also works in the reverse revenue model! In California we can see where money is NOT going to track the failure of obesity messaging back to the starting line:

Cutbacks have eliminated physical education in many schools, and of those that DO have P.E., (or even playgrounds!) very few conduct the President’s Council on Physical Fitness program where you used to chug through chin-ups, sit-ups and windsprint capacity.

And when the President’s Challenge for Physical Fitness Advocates/Corporate Partners are Burger King, Cartoon Network, and Coca-Cola…well…need I say more?
Further, it takes time and money to implement a school-wide program like this, so scratch that for most of the state. (kids can participate independently by going to a certain part of the President’s Challenge site, but aside from a few scout groups or community clubs, how many kids are dedicated enough to log on?)

Now, we only give a fitness test in grades 5, 7 & 9 in California, and it’s a watered down version that measures the most basic health benchmarks; a far cry from the tests where you’d strive to beat your own record and earn points, a patch or fitness award.

And today, there’s more concern about hiding data for fear of wounding self-esteem or mitigating humiliation for kids unable to tote their chubby keisters across the finish line.

In classrooms, lack of dollars drives obesity through curricula when teachers utilize ‘free’ materials created by commercial interests. (e.g. magazines counting with candy, free tissue boxes with cartoon icons splattered on the side, Channel One’s ads targeting kids in over 12,000 schools, free book covers with corporate sponsors, etc.)

Lack of funds has prompted many schools into unhealthy ‘partnerships’ with vending machine and soda companies as fundraising tools with long term contracts which many districts are now trying to outlaw. (now sodas are replaced by “sports drinks,” marketing useless sugar-water caloriess)

The American Beverage Association’s ‘voluntary’ compliance is therefore a bit of a crock to keep regulatory interests off their backs. It’s much like the bogus PR blitz when the Grocery Manufacturers of America announced a slew of new ‘self-regulations’ while being on record as opposing just about every school nutrition bill across the country that would restrict the sale of junk food or soda on-site.

Point is, we need to deconstruct these media messages, determine the context, and see how the ‘perception vs. reality’ washes.

It seems apparent to me that unhealthy messages and product marketing is still coming at kids in droves!In sum, Senator Harkin ‘got it’ when he spoke of the need for responsibility & restraint among marketers, particularly to children under 8…

“For parents I talk to, this is the last straw. A backlash is brewing. A Wall Street Journal poll in February found that 68 percent of American adults believe advertising to kids is a major contributor to the rising tide of obesity in children, and a clear majority said government should do more to regulate food ads directed at children.”

Well folks, I’m one of those parents…I’m IN advertising. And yes, it clearly IS the last straw. When some of us have chosen en masse to turn a glaring spotlight on our own industry, I think it’s safe to say, the backlash has begun.

Facts/Resources:

**Ruskin & Schor, (Aug. 2005) Junk Food Companies Lobby Hard Against Regulations, The Nation,**Ibid

FTC Workshop, July 2005, Washington D.C. Perspectives on Marketing, Self-Regulation, and Childhood Obesity

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