Self-regulation as a Tool for Promoting Healthier Children’s Diets: Can CARU and the CFBAI Do More?

Food and beverage marketing is but one component in a multifaceted solution to the childhood obesity crisis. It is an important factor, however, and has been under intense scrutiny in recent years. This is an area that poses significant regulatory challenges arising from our legal, political, and cultural frameworks, which protect some advertising as a form of speech and allow companies considerable latitude to produce and sell products. The potentials of industry self-regulation are thus of great interest, with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging manufacturers to draw on their “tremendous marketing power and creative know-how” to encourage children to consume nutritious foods (Vladeck, 2011). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has also recommended that industry, together with government, scientific, public health, and consumer groups, “establish and enforce the highest standards” for marketing products to children and youth (McGinnis, Gootman, & Kraak, 2006, p. 12).