Executive Summary
A. Background and Overview
This report is a follow-up to the Federal Trade Commission’s 2008 report: Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self- Regulation. The 2008 report wasrequested byCongress and prompted by concerns about dramatic increases in the rate of childhood obesity. It examined the state of food and beverage marketing to children as of 2006, at the early development of industry self-regulatory initiatives to improve the nutritional profile of foods marketed to children. Using data obtained through compulsory process orders to 44 major food and beverage marketers, the Commission found that the food industry spent $2.1 billion marketing food to youth in 2006. The Commission documented which categories of foods and beverages were most heavily marketed to children and teens, as well as which marketing techniques were used. TheCommission also assessed early self-regulatory effortsto promote more nutritiousfoods and made specific recommendationsfor further action by the food industry and media. In particular, the Commission conducted a detailed assessment of theChildren’s Food andBeverageAdvertising Initiative (CFBAI), a significantself-regulatory program launched by the Council of Better Business Bureaus in 2006. Because self-regulation
was still at its nascence, the Commission committed to prepare a follow-up report assessing industry progress.
