PHAI Releases New Resources to Use Law to Fight Junk Food Marketing to Kids

Food and beverage marketing targeting children is a major focus of the food and beverage industry because, as the Institute of Medicine’s report on the subject bluntly declared, “marketing works.” Deceptive and unfair marketing to promote high-calorie low-nutrient foods and beverages affect parent-consumer food purchasing decisions and induce demand among children for products that contribute […]

State Laws Prevent Local Control Over Much More Than Just Happy Meal Toys

Prepared by Cara Wilking, J.D., Staff Attorney Santa Clara County, CA and the City and County of San Francisco, CA enacted ordinances requiring restaurants to meet nutrition criteria for children’s meals that use incentive items such as toys to drive child consumer demand. Neither law bans the use of toys or other incentive items, and […]

Alabama State Consumer Protection Profile

Download the full Alabama State Consumer Protection Profile (pdf) Which state consumer protection provisions could be used to protect kids from junk food marketing? The Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act (“DTPA”) prohibits deceptive acts including: “Passing off goods or services as those of another, provided that this section shall not prohibit the private labeling of […]

PHAI’s Gottlieb discusses litigation as an approach to reduce childhood obesity at Institute of Medicine Workshop

On October 21, 2010, the Institute of Medicine’s Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention hosted a one-day workshop to examine “Legal Strategies in Childhood Obesity Prevention.” Mark Gottlieb, Executive Director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, presented on a panel moderated by UC Berkeley law professor Stephen Sugarman entitled […]

PHAI Researches Unfair Food Marketing to Kids (and those who purchase for kids)

On December 2, 2009, Mark Gottlieb and Cara Wilking presented a poster to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research program grantees in Tucson, Arizona. PHAI is exploring how state consumer protection laws can be used to address unfair and deceptive food and beverage marketing practices directed toward children or those who purchase food […]