Food Advertising Regulations Stiffen, People Still Fat

The ad industry is all a twitter about recent rulings by the Children's Advertising Review Board reports Ad Age. CARU, a division of the self-regulatory group National Advertising Review Council, has been battling Kraft over a Lunchables Chicken Shake-Ups ad which CARU claimed did not properly represent four out of the five food groups as required by the group's guidelines. Kraft revised the ads but said forcing advertisers to show all required food groups might cause advertisers to "depict an overabundance of foods."

Advertising attorney Douglas Wood told Ad Age CARU is overstepping its bounds by making the wrong way, saying, "Doing so [make policy changes in advertising practices] through cases rather than rule-making is a very dangerous road. By using a case to announce a broad reaching rule, some will argue that CARU has eliminated the deliberative process and engaged in rule-making more by fiat than fairness. Without doubt, this will further fuel the debate that CARU has become too aggressive."

No doubt, the processed, packaged, insta-meal approach many food makers follow these days has, sadly, left the balanced meal behind. That's not to say its food marketers responsibility to educate people on proper eating habits but when there is a preponderance or marketing for...oh, let's just say it...packaged crap, sometimes it gets hard to say no to all that processed stuff which always seems to have enough chemicals in it to make it taste really good.