Tag: breakfast cereal
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Advertising Standards Board Upholds Children’s Marketing Complaint Against Cereal Maker
The Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) recently announced that the Australian Advertising Standards Board (ASB) has upheld its complaint alleging that a TV commercial for Kellogg Co.’s Coco Pops® cereal violated the Responsible Children’s Marketing Initiative (RCMI). According to ASB’s case report, the advertisement under review featured a bowl of Coco Pops® playing “Marco Polo” in…
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Preliminary Approval Granted for Settlement of Frosted Mini-Wheats® False Ad Claims
A federal court in California has rendered its reluctant approval of a preliminary settlement in class litigation against Kellogg Co., alleging that the company falsely advertised its cereal product as a food that could help improve children’s attentiveness by 20 percent. Dennis v. Kellogg Co., No. 09-1786 (S.D. Cal., order entered May 3, 2013). The…
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EFSA Solicits Acrylamide Data
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued “a call for acrylamide occurrence data in food and beverages intended for human consumption collected outside official controls.” Part of the agency’s ongoing assessment of acrylamide levels in food and beverages, the latest request for data focuses on the following product categories: (i) french fries sold as…
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New Report Critical of Digital Food Marketing to Children
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and the Berkeley Media Studies Group have published a report criticizing top cereal manufacturers for allegedly targeting children with “sophisticated online marketing techniques.” Andrew Cheyne, et al., “Marketing Sugary Cereals to Children in the Digital Age: A Content Analysis of 17 Child-Targeted Websites,” Journal of Health Communication,…
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UK Agency Upholds Complaint Targeting Weetabix App
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint lodged by the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) against Weetabix Ltd.’s product-branded app, concluding that the “WeetaKid” game, which prompted players to scan QR codes during game-play, “was persuasive and negative, and could lead children to understand that if they did not eat Weetabix they were…
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UK Agency Rules Cereal Ad Does Not Promote “Excessive Consumption”
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has declined to uphold five complaints alleging that a TV commercial for Weetabix Ltd.’s Weetos breakfast cereal promoted “poor nutritional habits and an unhealthy lifestyle in children, because… it encouraged excessive consumption.” According to ASA, the ad in question showed a child eating Weetos for breakfast and later in…
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Insurance Dispute in Oatmeal Recall Resolved in Favor of Insured
A federal court in Minnesota has granted the motion for summary judgment filed by a company whose insurance carrier claimed it was not required to cover the company’s settlement of claims arising from a recall of instant oatmeal purportedly contaminated with instant milk produced at a facility where the Food and Drug Administration “detected insanitary…
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Federal Court Dismisses Most Claims in Cheerios MDL
A federal court in New Jersey has found that most of the named plaintiffs in putative class actions consolidated in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceeding lack standing to pursue claims that General Mills, Inc. violated consumer fraud laws by claiming that its Cheerios cereal products reduce cholesterol, the risk of heart disease and certain forms…