Crying Foul over Online Junk Food Marketing

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For example, Coca-Cola (KO) launched a campaign with social network Facebook last year that lets users create a "Sprite Sips" character that can be shared with friends. Though Coca-Cola pays to create the ad, it doesn't have to pay for it "going viral" and being passed around by users. "The cost of reaching and engaging a lot more kids is a lot less than the cost of what it is to buy a 30-second television ad," says Montgomery, adding that in many cases ads are spread among social networking friends at no cost to the marketer.

Regulatory Authority Is Unclear

The Berkeley report's authors also say junk food companies have become particularly adept at targeting young people at the greatest risk for obesity, such as inner-city African Americans, through so-called behavioral targeting, which delivers ads based on a person's Web-surfing habits. For example, advertisers can concentrate junk food ads on computers located in urban areas and whose users have visited sites popular with inner-city youth. "They are using a powerful arsenal of tools to target children and adolescents so they can engage in these unhealthy eating behaviors," says Chester.

A challenge consumer groups face in getting the FTC or others to act is that is it's not clear who has the authority to regulate advertising online. Congress stripped the FTC of its authority to regulate advertising after the organization restricted sugary snack ads on children's programming. The Federal Communications Commission, meanwhile, is largely focused on regulating television advertising. "To show that the government needs to regulate this advertising to improve children's diets would be pretty tough," says Mary Engle, the FTC's associate director for advertising practices, adding that the link between junk food advertising and rising youth obesity rates isn't proven.

Placing Responsibility

Food marketers insist the industry is successfully policing itself and that no government regulation is needed. Starting this year, McDonald's (MCD) announced it would only advertise to kids those foods, including Apple Dippers, that fit within guidelines set in 2005 by the U.S. Agriculture Dept. McDonald's declined to make an executive available to comment. Kraft (KFT) only features products that meet higher nutrition criteria on Web sites where more than 35% of total visitors are under 12, says a company spokesman. "We think that companies can act on a self-regulatory basis much more quickly than the government can," the FTC's Engle says.

Advocates for regulation also say that the FTC's numbers on advertising to kids under 12 fail to account for Web sites that are officially created for older kids, but lure younger ones. For example, Kraft's NabiscoWorld.com is intended for kids older than 12. But the site includes games that could appeal to younger audiences, such as Oreos Race for the Stuf, whereby a player-controlled character can twist, lick, and dunk oversize Oreo cookies. NabiscoWorld.com, along with Wrigley's (WWY) Candystand, Pizza Hut, and Pepsi (PEP) Stuff were among the 10 most popular food sites on the Web in July, according to research firm Hitwise.

Some consumers and marketers say families, rather than the government, should be responsible for monitoring kids' exposure to advertising (BusinessWeek.com, 5/17/07). "Listen up, fellow parents: when we point a collective finger, three more are pointing right back at us," wrote J. Kristin Ament, a writer for online marketing blog Unbound Edition, in a 2007 response to an earlier report by Chester and Montgomery. "When will we stop playing the victim and start taking personal responsibility for our kids' health and eating habits."

That's just what Rashid, of Brooklyn, is out to do. And she doesn't have qualms about asking regulators for a little help.

Holahan is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York.