Disney Cuts Junk Food Ads for Kids

[Elladorine]

The Walt Disney Co. is announcing today that it plans to advertise only healthier foods to kids on its TV channels, radio station and website. Disney says it's the first major media company to set a standard for food advertising on kid-focused TV programming.

By 2015, all food and beverage products that are advertised, promoted or sponsored on the Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior, Radio Disney, Disney.com and Saturday morning programming for kids on ABC-owned stations (Disney owns ABC) will have to meet the company's nutrition criteria for limiting calories and reducing saturated fat, sodium and sugar.

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[Sky Syndrome]

I dare Disney to dare a family with little kids to eat nothing but health food at a Disney Park for a day and someone from Disney supervises the family and films their day of healthy eatting to show on the Disney TV channels and website.

[Maerj]

And I dare to volunteer to be that family! Feed me Disney!

[Disney's Divinity]

That's actually a good idea (to me). I'm not sure why it'll take until 2015 to do that though--did they already have their advertisements planned three years in advance?

[carolinakid]

Further encroachment of the nanny state....

[Elladorine]

Further encroachment of the nanny state....

I don't think it's a bad thing. Childhood obesity is at an all-time high, more than tripling in the past 30 years. Some are no longer referring to type 2 diabetes as "adult onset" because it often starts during childhood now.

This is the company's choice, not a state or federal requirement. While I do believe parents should carry the responsibility of raising their own children properly, health awareness has to begin somewhere, and there's really no need for children to be bombarded with messages from products that can potentially lead to the second highest form of preventable death in the United States.

[candydog]

Well, I don't mind Disney no longer advertising junk food. It'd make it easier for parents to say no if kids didn't see the stuff on TV so much. Think about it, if a kid sees a new junk food product advertised on TV, they're going to want it. Not having it shoved in their faces at least increases the chances of the product going unnoticed by the child.

One thing that I think is a little silly, which several companies have tried to do is to make junk food "healthier". The answer to the problem isn't to make this food healthier, but for people to understand that they need to eat less of it. You can tamper with the recipe of a McDonalds' hamburger all you like, but if you continue to eat them several times a week you're not going be any better off really.

[The_Iceflash]

Further encroachment of the nanny state....

I don't think it's a bad thing. Childhood obesity is at an all-time high, more than tripling in the past 30 years. Some are no longer referring to type 2 diabetes as "adult onset" because it often starts during childhood now.

This is the company's choice, not a state or federal requirement. While I do believe parents should carry the responsibility of raising their own children properly, health awareness has to begin somewhere, and there's really no need for children to be bombarded with messages from products that can potentially lead to the second highest form of preventable death in the United States.

I agree. I see nothing wrong with this.

*in before someone tries calling them a hypocrite for not having every food item in the Disney Parks being healthy. Trying to help parents and children make healthier food choices for their daily diet and not having everything be healthy in the parks aren't even comparable. One, there's nothing wrong with eating something not so healthy on vacation as a treat (it is vacation after all) when it is supplemented with a healthy balanced diet. Two, Disney has plenty of healthy food options in their parks. One isn't forced to eat unhealthy there.

[L&P on the Scales]

ITV did this to their pre-watershed programming years ago. I'm surprised Disney didn't join the healthy advertising bandwagon sooner.

[ajmrowland]

I think food in the Disney parks are the exception. After all, going to Disneyland is supposed to be a treat.

[Siren]

I don't see it as being a nanny state thing. I see it as making a decision to no longer support something proven unhealthy. Consider how many old children's movies, Disney or otherwise where a GOOD GUY smokes cigarettes/cigars. Now only bad guys smoke.

[pap64]

ITV did this to their pre-watershed programming years ago. I'm surprised Disney didn't join the healthy advertising bandwagon sooner.

Technically, Disney joined the healthy bandwagon years ago when their contract with McDonalds ended and decided not to renew it. Disney has been trying to adopt more healthy food options for their marketing, they just now got around to removing the ads from their channels and parks.