NEWS RELEASE
For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin (202) 387-8030
For Immediate Release: December 6th, 2005
Commercial Alert Statement on IOM Report on Food Marketing to Children
Following is the statement of Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, regarding todays Institute of Medicine report on food marketing to children.
“It is a national scandal that the food industry spends $10 billion per year on marketing to children while their obesity rates soar through the stratosphere. This industry has no shame.”
“It’s time for Congress to put our children’s health ahead of food industry profits. Congress should swiftly expel junk food from public schools, require disclosure of product placement in all media, and eliminate the federal tax deduction for food advertising to children.”
For background, see Commercial Alert’s web page on childhood obesity and the marketing of junk food.
Commercial Alert is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy. For more information, see our website at: http://www.commercialalert.org.
The Institute of Medicine report is available at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11514.html.
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