Coca-Cola, McDonald`s subpoenaed by Trade Commission

Source: Zee News/India

Washington, Aug 11: The US Federal Trade Commission issued subpoenas to 44 food and beverage companies including Coca-Cola Co., McDonald's Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co., seeking information on how they market to children.

The companies have 90 days to respond to the orders, which were sent over the past week, FTC spokeswoman Jackie Dizdul said in an interview. The information is being collected for an FTC study on advertising of food and drinks to kids, mandated under a federal appropriations bill for the agency.

Other companies that received the subpoenas include PepsiCo Inc., Burger King Holdings Inc., Kraft Foods Inc. and General Mills Inc. The FTC's study comes amid increasing rates of childhood obesity. The percentage of overweight youngsters in the US has more than tripled since 1980, according to the US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

``We're going to use this to lay out a description of what food-and-beverage marketing looks like nowadays,'' Dizdul said. Similar subpoenas have been issued in the past to companies in the alcohol and tobacco industries, she said.



Read more: http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=388245&ssid=53&ssname=Companies%20and%20Commodities&sid=BUS&sname=LATEST-BUSINESS-NEWS

And not front page on CNN?

because all of the information and business people for these companies have been outsourced to India?

Just another reason to suspect they are wrong.

I rarely find any of my news stories/articles from US sources, anymore.

It actually is in a number of U.S. publications also.
http://www.google.com/search?as_epq=issued+subpoenas+to+44&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

It looks like Bloomberg is the original source for the story.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=apHiUdboPZg0&refer=home

:thumbsup:

but it's also important to point out when they do things right.

Kids (5.yos) were given two plates of identical foods, one in a plain wrapper and one in a McDonald's wrapper, and asked which one tasted better.

In every case, the food in the McDonald's wrapper was better, even carrot sticks.
Rachel and Kent lamented the early and effective conditioning of children.

I'm not discouraged so easily. I made a mental note to beg my local Mickey-D's for some empty wrappers so that I'd be prepared the next time I had to feed kids (having none of my own).

Can you imagine wrapping your kid's PBJ school lunch in a cheeseburger paper? Sending his yogurt off in a McDonald's bag? How hilarious is this? Serving broccoli in a fries box. Too funny.

I'm a writing teacher and when I ask my students to write about nature, they do so from the standpoint of consumer goods. My descriptive writing assignment requires them to go outside and spent time with trees and birds and maybe even a lake if they can find one. They come up with stuff like:

"The early-morning air smelled like Aunt Jemina's pancake syrup."

"As I looked through the grass, the sun behind it made it look like the bright neon green of an iPod commercial."

We're such a sick, effed up culture.

But not to worry--everywhere we look, there are signs it's about to collapse.



Cher

in the beginning stages of creating an organization that takes urban kids on camping trips and other outdoorsy things that they wouldn't otherwise experience.

I hope to help him with it. I think we can get a good business model working and then write for grants and franchise it to other regions.

He's only one of a legion of humanitarians who are making it their business to help others.

So look on the bright side everybody! NJCher already is.

And thanks NJCher so much for being a force for good, and getting your children outside. Before you know it they'll start saying that ipod commercials have the colors of a sunset.

Cheers everybody! Happy Saturday!

Morgan Spurlock touched on how McD gets to kids at an early age.

WTF do they think Ronald is for?

Do they think adults want to see a clown where they eat :crazy: