Save The Cereal

The Lawsuit

On January 18, 2006 a lawsuit was filed against both Viacomm and Kelloggs by The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), parent Sherri Carlson and parent Andrew Leong in a Massachusetts court. The claimed injury due to the advertising campaigns of Kelloggs on Viacom channel Nickelodeon:

This was based on a study performed by the CSPI of Saturday morning television advertisements and the fact that it is aimed at children for foods deemed as poor in nutrition:

The lawsuit argues that Kelloggs and Viacom are liable because the advertisements led the children watching them to prefer the food advertised over other foods. In other words, they were liable because the advertisements reportedly worked:

Apparently, Kelloggs and Viacom are also liable because the children “…pester their parents…”. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like poor parenting on their part by using television as a babysitter.

The Letter

Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA) sent a letter to the FCC on April 16, 2007 regarding his concerns of the role media is playing in the increasing childhood obesity epidemic. Representative Markey is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on on Telecommunications and the Internet. Ironically, or perhaps not so much, he is a representative from the state of Massachusetts where the lawsuit from January of 2006 was filed.

The letter cited a study done by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation that provided the following statistics regarding food advertising aimed at children:

This study led Representative Markey to find a connection between food advertising and the growing childhood obesity epidemic as reported by the National Center for Health Statistics: