Coke’s Balancing Act
By Cara Wilking, JD, Consulting Attorney The Coca-Cola Company’s pouring of millions of dollars into the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN), a front group focused on exercise as opposed to diet to combat obesity, has crystallized an issue that the public health community has long been concerned about: the role of industry funding to research […]
PHAI Board Member, Ben Kelley, Publishes Powerful Op-ed on GM’s Apologies
One of the Public Health Advocacy Institute’s founding board members, Ben Kelley, is a longtime auto safety expert with considerable experience with the issue from both in and outside of government. He has just published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times (and Fair Warning) that benefits from his long memory of General Motors’ apologies […]
PHAI’s Gottlieb and Wilking Co-author study in JAMA Pediatrics Showing that Fast Food Giants Confuse and Deceive Kids
Boston – After much criticism and prodding, Fast food giants McDonald’s and Burger King agreed to depict healthier food options in advertising directed at children. Researchers at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, along with the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University School of Law, found that attempts to honor these pledges […]
PHAI’s Wilking interviewed in Huff Post for Michele Simon’s “Ask a Food Lawyer” feature
Michele Simon is a public health lawyer specializing in industry marketing and lobbying tactics. She is the author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back, and president of Eat Drink Politics, an industry watchdog consulting business. Ms. Simon asks PHAI’s senior staff attorney, Cara Wilking, about […]
McDonald’s Repeatedly Violates CARU Premium Guideline
In response to a recent study finding that nationally televised fast food television advertisements to children by McDonald’s and Burger King from 2009-2010 focused primarily on toys, movie tie-ins and branding, CARU Director Wayne Keeley stated that “[b]oth companies have always respected CARU’s recommendations by discontinuing the challenged ads, and pledged to take into account CARU’s […]
New study finds McDonald’s and Burger King responsible for 99% of fast-food television ads for kids, suggests industry’s efforts to self-regulate its marketing practices are ineffective
Fast-food companies emphasize toy giveaways and movie tie-ins rather than food products when marketing to kids on television, which suggests that industry is not abiding by its self-regulatory pledges for child-directed marketing, according to a study co-authored by the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of […]
Banned In the Cage: How Xyience and NOS Unfairly and Deceptively Market Energy Drinks
by Cara Wilking, J.D., Rebecca Leff and Katelyn Blaney The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has its roots in “cage-fighting” and was long considered too wild and violent for mainstream sports fans. Not long ago cage-fighting was shunned by parents, banned by states and rejected by broadcast networks and cable operators for its brutality. While cage-fighting […]
Major Energy Drink Makers Don’t Play By Their Own Rules
Cara Wilking, J.D. Today, the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, released a report entitled Energy Drink Self-Regulation chronicling the ways in which major energy drink makers openly violate the self-regulatory guidelines issued by their own trade association, the American Beverage Association (ABA). A review of energy drink […]
Industry Controls Over Food Marketing To Young Children: Are They Effective?
By Ben Kelley The U.S. food and advertising industries maintain a system of self-regulation of marketing messages promoting the purchase and consumption of high-calorie, low-nutrition foods to children. This paper presents an extensive review and summary of global assessments of self-regulation in general, as well as of commentaries specifically addressing the world-wide state of regulation directed at food […]
