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Kid's television shows may be cheesy, but if one group has their way, the ads will be cheese-free from now on. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has requested that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ban cheese and cheese-related advertising from airing during children's TV programs. The Committee feels that cheese, as it is very high in fat, is "is not an acceptable food to be promoted to kids during the obesity epidemic." This means that cheese in any form - grilled cheese, string cheese, Laughing Cow cheese snacks and pizza, to name just a few - would be off limits.
Believe it or not, there is precedence to back up their request. The ban on junk food advertising during children's TV programs in the UK, which has been in place for several months now, includes cheese.
Despite a high fat content, cheese should not be made a villain. Cheese is high in protein, vitamins, and minerals like calcium, phosphorus and zinc. Eating cheese can also help prevent tooth decay - and let's not forget that there are plenty of low and reduced fat cheeses out there, including cream cheese, cottage cheese and sliced sandwich cheeses. The FTC is under no obligation to honor the PCRM's request, so we will just have to wait and see how things turn out.
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TV Shows That Last Too Long
2-11-2007 @5:50PM Colin said... This kind of OTT regulation drives me crazy! Whether ort not cheese is healthy, _parents_ should be the ones deciding what kids eat, not the government.
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2-11-2007 @6:03PM Husband said... I think this group and Science in the Public interest are made up of one or two physicians and a fleet of lawyers. I don't trust anything they say because they are more about controling people's lives then actually do people a public service.
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2-11-2007 @6:07PM b said... This is my biggest pet peeve. Fat doesn't make you fat, SUGAR makes you fat.
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2-11-2007 @6:11PM Womble said... PCRM is directly linked to PETA. They are against all consumption of animal-based foods. They put out quite a stink when the Atkins diet was popular, that everyone who followed it was going to die, yadda yadda. I am not surprised they are going after cheese due to this connection - they don't care about kids' health, they care about making kids vegan.
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2-11-2007 @6:20PM gary said... I love good cheese, and I certainly don't view it as a junk food. However, let's be realistic. I highly doubt most American children's shows are supported by ads for fine Swiss Gruyere, Italian Gorgonzolas, or unpasteurized French brie. They're going to be pushing Kraft singles, cheese strings, Cheez Wiz and all that other orange oil-based junk that hardly deserves to be called cheese anyway. I think in the context, this is not a big deal, and probably makes sense.
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2-11-2007 @7:38PM minger said... I think Gary's got it right. Anyone who seriously thinks that the ads for cheese during kids TV shows are going to be for healthy, low-fat cheese must not have watched TV for a while.
Also, I have to point out that a ban on cheese ads during kids' TV is NOT the same as the government controlling what kids eat. Parents are still free to feed their kids cheese. Without ads, those parents who do NOT want to feed their kids cheese will be spared the whining, cajoling and general sulking that accompanies demands for TV-promoted cheese products. Marketing executives aren't stupid. They know that marketing products to kids means that parents will be likely pressured into buying them.
Frankly, all else being equal, I would like to see a ban on ALL advertising during childrens' programs.
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2-12-2007 @10:43AM Bruce Dearborn Walker said... A ban on ALL advertising during children's shows would result in NO children's shows. Free market and all that. Any children's shows without advertising are advertising in themselves, usually well intended and clumsy attempts at manipulative socialisation by people trying to avoid real work.
As children we mocked those shows for about 30 seconds, then turned to something interesting, preferably with commercials for overly sweetened cereal.
Wheel of Morality, turn, turn, turn...
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2-12-2007 @7:41PM Nicole Fitzhugh said... Does anyone else remember the ABC PSA-- not quite part of Schoolhouse Rock, but along those lines-- where the song was "I Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese"? Lo, how the mighty hath fallen. Cheese rules, and I think the physicians could maybe more usefully direct their complaints elsewhere.
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2-12-2007 @5:52AM Wenhaston Blackheath said... As I understand it, the reason the ban in the UK includes cheese is that it's based on fat/ salt/ sugar content of 100g of the product advertised.
There's been a fair bit of criticism of this in the UK media, pointing out that a 'typical serving' of some of the products banned from advertising (e.g. cheese, marmite, olive oil, honey) is much less than 100g.
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2-12-2007 @7:33AM LordJezo said... Might as well ban ads for milk as well.
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2-12-2007 @8:38AM calamari said... If cheese-related advertising is banned, you'll soon have a cartoon in which the main characters are a Kraft single ("Krafty") and a piece of string cheese ("Bean Pole") who fight crime and generate large numbers of product tie-ins, available at your nearest Toys-R-Us.
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2-12-2007 @10:56AM Laryssa said... Being a child is scary. I can't even tell you how long it took me to get over irrational fears I had as a child. Luckily, I was never afraid of cheese. Could you imagine though, how easily it would be for children to become afraid of certain foods? Kids aren't stupid, and if they observe that something is being withheld from them, they're going to catch on. Fear the cheese.
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2-12-2007 @2:36PM Cyn said... My toddler's most favorite food is cheese, and he is far from overweight. I would rather him see a kraft commercial with cartoon cows, than one for "fruit" rollups and think they are fruit, or some sugary cereal (Reese's cereal and Cookie Crisp are 2 that come immediately to mind) that he thinks he has to have.
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2-12-2007 @2:23PM red said... I'm a child of the 70s and I can still remember the "Time for Timer" PSA-like cartoons run between cartoons and commercials. A little cartoon man (Timer) would run around singing, "...hanker for a hunk of, a slice or slab or chunk of, hanker for a hunk of cheese."
Guess that'll never ever come back.
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2-12-2007 @3:46PM kendo said... I am really sick of this..... seriously where are the parents here. If your kid is fat its because you left them with no control. Parents dont know how to say NO! anymore. Parents are so lazy they want to blame their own mistakes on others. MY KID SET MY HOUSE ON FIRE BECAUSE OF BEEVIS AND BUTTHEAD. Where the hell were you lady with the belt to beat the living hell out of your kid when he was playing with fire? Control your kids. Take responsibility over your kid. There is no bigger influence than a childs parents!
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2-13-2007 @3:17PM hoeunkim said... this is insane. every day, why is our government trying to tell us what we can watch what we can eat, am i the only one thinking that this is ridiculous? it's a shame that they are even thinking about doing this. cheese is essential to cooking, i use cheese in almost everything that i make to give it that extra flavors that will make even the most mundane food some complexity. soon this crazy world will tell me that i cant buy steak at my butcher. absolutely asinine. those "docs" can go live in socialist part of the world in my opinion.
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4-13-2007 @5:52PM A.B. said... Strangely I've read that most overweight children refuse to consume dairy products and prefer carb and sugar loaded stuff like soda, doughnuts, and candy.
On the other hand I was very slender as a child as I lived with a grandmother ( she was a registered nurse) who was very strict about sugar, starch, and carbs. Later on as a teenager I was told to cut the fat in my diet and eat more carbs. Thats when I gained all the weight I have on myself now.
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