The food industry in the United States has been struggling with accusations that it is responsible for the country’s “obesity epidemic” but companies are now developing strategies to deal with the problem. Some efforts are more genuine than others, as David Robertson reports.
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Obesity, particularly in children, has become a hot topic in nearly all Western countries but the problem is acute in the US where obesity levels in younger children have tripled since the 1970s.
The food industry initially floundered as public opinion weighed heavily against the “junk food” manufacturers and retailers. The fastfood chains faced legal action for making their customers fat and politicians started to propose laws that would prevent food manufacturers from advertising to children.
Opportunity or threat?
But as food companies have started to deal with these issues many of the more innovative manufacturers and retailers have realised that growing consumer concern represents an opportunity – not a danger.
The fastfood retailers were the first to feel the public’s ire about junk food causing obesity. In 2002 a lawsuit was filed by a couple of teenagers who claimed that McDonald’s had made them fat. The industry panicked as a tobacco-like scenario threatened to develop and ever since retailers and food manufacturers have been struggling to find a way to deal with the problem without alienating consumers.
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By GlobalDataThe fastfood retailers have tackled the issue of lawsuits by lobbying hard for state laws that ban this type of legal action. So far 20 states have introduced variations of the “commonsense consumption” law, as it is called, and at least another 11 will do so.
Salad boom for the golden arches
A number of fastfood chains have also adopted healthier options and McDonalds is now selling 300 million salads a year – building opportunity out of adversity.
The food manufacturers are also now beginning to act and two distinct strategies are beginning to develop. The first strategy has been to remind the public and lawmakers that food is only part of the problem. Lack of exercise and lack of nutritional education is the real problem, the food industry has claimed.
“There are multiple factors leading to obesity and we recognise our role in helping people as they try to find solutions,” says Stephanie Childs, spokeswoman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “Companies are giving grants to schools and community groups for nutritional education and physical education programs because there are so many factors involved and people need to realise there has to be a balance between what they eat and what they are doing. Food isn’t a problem as long as people balance their diets.”
The big food companies are leaving much of the blame allocation to the GMA and other trade bodies, partly because the manufacturers themselves don’t want to keep drawing attention to their role in the obesity debate. “Each company is talking about this at different volumes,” admitted Childs.
Lack of exercise fundamental
The message that food isn’t to blame has obviously filtered through to the US Government because when the Federal Trade Commission held a two day workshop on childhood obesity in July, FTC chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras blamed fat kids on cuts in physical education programmes, irresponsible parents and video games.
Having established that “junk food” is not the one, single reason for rises in obesity, trade groups have gone on to persuade politicians that the industry should not be punished for making these products. This has not kept the critics silent, however, and there are campaigns all across the US to remove fastfood from schools and to end the self-regulation of advertising to children.
Advertising in the spotlight
Health officials are concerned because according to Nielsen Media an average American child sees 40,000 TV ads a year and half of them are selling candy, sugared cereals, soft drinks and snack foods. The Institute of Medicine reported last year that “young children are uniquely vulnerable to commercial promotion because they lack the skills to understand the difference between information and advertising.”
Currently a five-person group called the Children’s Advertising Review Board determines what is and isn’t allowed – and the health lobby says the Board has failed to protect children from the rapacious food industry.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents Campbell Soup, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft, Nestlé, Pepsico, Sara Lee and Unilever, is trying to diffuse controversy over the Board’s apparent weakness by proposing changes to the way it operates.
The GMA wants to increase the amount of advice received from health and nutrition experts; it wants to start regulating advertising in video games and interactive websites; it wants to ban paid product placement in children’s programmes; and it wants to monitor the use of cartoon and movie characters in advertising.
The GMA’s proposed strengthening of the Children’s Advertising Review Board should go a long way to satisfying many critics and the trade group’s proactive attitude is a demonstration of just how determined the food industry is to avoid Government regulation of the US$27bn a year kids’ food market.
The second strategy for dealing with obesity is not one idea, but rather a wide range of policies being pursued by individual companies.
Kraft leading the way?
Kraft, for example, stunned many analysts in January by announcing that it would no longer use print, radio or television to advertise to kids under the age of 12. This self-imposed ban includes products such as Oreo cookies, Kool-Aid and cereals like Fruity Pebbles. (Coke has adopted a similar policy.)
This sounds like a huge sacrifice by Kraft, but is it really? The proliferation of other media in recent years has led to a steady decline in mainstream television audiences and the effectiveness of the traditional 30 second TV ad has been questioned for some time.
A recent Federal Trade Commission study seems to confirm this. The research showed that children were watching fewer TV ads promoting food products now (13 a day) than in 1977 (18 a day).
Instead, Kraft is promoting products like Oreos by doing summer jingle singing contests in town parks and by giving away educational toys in the shape of the cookie.
Concern about obesity is leading to other opportunities. Oreo, a useful example as it is the biggest selling cookie in the US, has launched Oreo Thin Crisps – very thin Oreo cookies wrapped in 100 calorie bags.
Nabisco, the Kraft division responsible for Oreo, has created a sales niche with Thins among, particularly, weight-conscious women, who like the imposed restraint of a bag that contains only 100 calories.
Jumping on the health bandwagon
General Mills is another company that has decided to use health concerns to its advantage. It recently launched a national ad campaign that encourages children to eat breakfast, latching onto the old idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
General Mills is cleverly using its Trix bunny and Lucky Charms leprechaun characters to push the “Choose Breakfast” message, neatly avoiding the fact that these cereals contain a lot of sugar but still managing to sound like a health promotion.
Another trick being adopted by food companies is to reposition products as an adult treat, like Interstate Bakeries’ Hostess Twinkies.
“Our companies are hearing from their consumers that they are increasingly interested in healthier products and companies are taking a proactive stance because it is in their commercial interest and in their customer’s interest,” said Stephanie Childs.
Of course, none of these measures will ultimately do much to help America lose weight but they could fight off the sort of Government-imposed rules that are beginning to appear in Europe.
