Nickelodeon bans characters from pushing junk food

by Staff, Brand Republic 17-Aug-07, 09:00

NEW YORK - Viacom's children's TV network Nickelodeon has vowed to stop its cartoon characters such as Rugrats and SpongeBob SquarePants from being used to promote junk food.

The company said that its policy would become effective by January 2009 and that any new licensing deals for its characters, which have seen 'Rugrats' promote Burger King, will have to meet dietary and nutritional governmental guidelines.

The move was announced by Viacom chief executive Cyma Zarghami, who said it was part of Nickelodeon's initiative to encourage exercise and healthy eating among children.

"Beginning in January 2009, Nickelodeon will limit the use of its licensed characters on food packaging to products that meet 'better for you' criteria as established by marketing partners in accordance with governmental dietary guidelines," she said.

The decision has been welcomed by the US lobbying group Center for Science in the Public Interest, which last year threatened to sue Nickelodeon for marketing primarily junk food to kids.

Michael Jacobson, the body's executive director, said: "Nickelodeon is really the 800lb gorilla of children's programming. It's a very important step for children's health, assuming the criteria are reasonable."

However, Nickelodeon will still permit its characters to be used to promote unhealthy foods such as sweets on special occasions.

"If candy companies want to advertise for Halloween, we want to be able to do that," Zarghami said.

Nickelodeon's announcement follows in the wake of moves by global food and drinks companies such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola to place stricter controls on advertising to children. In October another children's entertainment giant, Walt Disney, said that its characters would only be allowed to appear on products that met certain nutritional standards.