Frequently Asked Questions
What is this research about?
This is a comprehensive study of the nutrition and marketing of children's cereals. This report presents the nutrient quality of cereals, evaluates the products marketed to children as compared to those marketed to adults, quantifies young people's exposure to cereal marketing, and describes the various marketing practices used to reach children and their parents. The data collected for this report were from all of 2008 and the first three months of 2009.
How do you define a "child" brand?
This research makes a fundamental distinction between brands marketed directly to children (i.e., child brands); those marketed to parents and adults as appropriate to feed their children and/or families (i.e., family brands); and those marketed to adults for adult consumption only (i.e., adult brands). We consider a cereal a child brand if children are disproportionately targeted by the company in their marketing of the brand.
Why are you concerned only with child brands?
Due to their earlier state in cognitive development, children are more vulnerable to the influence of marketing. Children have a more difficult time than adults distinguishing between entertainment and marketing content on television. In addition, lifelong taste preferences and brand loyalties are being established in childhood. Hence, foods marketed to children should be held to a higher standard.
Why breakfast cereals?
Children see more advertising for breakfast cereals than for any other category of packaged food. Cereal companies spent more than $156 million promoting children's cereals just on television in 2008. They also market extensively using the internet, social media, packaging, and in-store promotions.
How did you objectively determine what makes a healthy cereal?
Central to this research is the evaluation of the nutrient content of 277 ready-to-eat cereals offered by 13 companies in the United States, and comparison of the quality of child, family, and adult brands to each other. We reviewed the scientific literature on how to score foods for their nutrition and believe that the best scientifically-validated system is the nutrient profiling system used in the United Kingdom. This nutrition profiling system was developed by Rayner and colleagues at Oxford University and is used by government in the United Kingdom to determine which foods can be marketed to children on television.
How did you assess all the ways that companies market to children?
Television advertising, marketing on the internet (including cereal company websites and advertising on other websites), and in-store marketing (including shelf space allocation, point-of-sale programs, and product packaging) represent 97.5% of cereal companies' total youth marketing budgets. These three areas were examined to quantify companies' overall marketing to children.
Young people's exposure to advertising for individual brands was documented using licensed syndicated media research data, including television ratings data from the Nielsen Company and data from comScore Media Metrix and Ad Metrix to document website and internet advertising exposure.
In-store marketing practices were quantified through a commissioned audit of a nationally representative sample of supermarkets across the United States. These exposure data are supplemented with content analyses to examine the messages presented in television advertisements, child-targeted websites, banner advertising on youth-oriented websites, and cereal packages.
Does this study rank companies and cereals based on nutrition or marketing?
Both. This research provides separate rankings for cereal nutrition and marketing practices. It also combines nutrition quality and marketing exposure to assign one overall score--FACTS (Food Advertising to Children and Teens Score)--for each child and family brand.
What cereals have the best combined FACT scores?
Kellogg Mini-Wheats received the best nutrition rating; therefore, it is the only brand to receive a high combined FACT score.
The cereals with the poorest scores based on combined nutrition and marketing impact are Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Nut Cheerios, Trix, and Reese's Puffs.
Isn't it obvious that food companies market to children? Why is this news?
For the first time, data from numerous reliable sources, including syndicated media research data, validated nutrition profiles, and observed in-store marketing practices have been brought together into a usable format for parents, researchers, and advocates. These are the same data sources used by the food industry and advertising agencies in their own research on marketing. The FACTS report allows the public to compare cereal companies to each other and learn more about specific brands.
What about food company pledges to be more responsible in how they market to children?
Through the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) sponsored by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, most of the largest food marketers have pledged to reduce the marketing of the least healthy products to children. This research shows that the CFBAI has not significantly reduced the amount of cereal advertising to children on television. The average child in the U.S. continues to view 1.6 ads on television every day for products with cereal companies' poorest quality nutrition. According to first quarter 2009 numbers, some companies may have even increased their television advertising targeted to children.
What about company efforts to make foods healthier?
The larger cereal companies have improved the nutrition of some cereals, but to a small extent. Approximately two-thirds of child and family products have been reformulated, reducing sugar content from three-and-a-half teaspoons to three teaspoons per serving.
New cereals that companies brought to market, as well as adaptations of existing brands, also failed to meet reasonable nutrition standards.
How was this study funded?
Support for this project was provided by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Rudd Foundation.
