Hawking Hydration Low: Gatorade Tells Kids To Avoid Water

Aug. 20, 2015 Update: Now Gatorade's G-Force is forcing their bottled neon into schools under the guise of 'hydration education?' Seriously? Paging media watchdogs! Crickets. Jan. 10, 2014 I’ve written a lot about the heavy marketing of sugary/salty sports drinks over water for hydration, and this post about “kidney stones in kindergarten” serves as a public health reminder … [Read more...]

Kids Think A Blackberry Is A Device Not A Fruit? Eat Real.

 Oct 24, 2012 Food Day 2012! On Twitter, follow #FoodDayConf with great tips on label lingo, decoding kids aisle food claims. In honor of the day, I'm reprising "Food for Thought: Media to Digest for Healthier Kids" and inviting ALL to continue the conversation on Oct 30 in SF at the Fast Forward Health Film Fest chock full of Bay Area health innovation pros. I'll be there and … [Read more...]

Food Marketing to Kids: Occupy Wall Street Applies Here, Too

Oct. 16, 2011 It's Blog Action Day today which coincides with United Nations' World Food Day, so my contribution among 80 countries participating is about food policy, profiteering and public health. Follow Twitter's hashtag #BAD11for more food topics Sibling scuffles often end with a thunderous “Enough! Someone’s gonna get hurt” scolding from a parent, so maybe it’s time … [Read more...]

COPPA: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Filing

July 1, 2010 For those mumbling, "COPPA schmoppa, there goes Amy into policy wonk land, please translate media jargon into usable tidbits" I'll offer a few primers... What is COPPA? Why do we need it? (see DigitalAds.org for an interactive show-n-tell which all ages can grok for an 'aha' moment on food and beverage marketing targeting kids in the digital age) Who are … [Read more...]

FCC Comment Extension On Kids Product Placement ‘til Nov. 17!

Your turn to sound off if you’d like to join me (and 173 other orgs and commenters at last count) to reinforce the notion that embedded advertising (product placement) does not belong in young children’s programming. Shaping Youth was one of the initial 23 orgs onboard this coalition addressing the FCC, which I've written about exhaustively many a … [Read more...]