Who would ever think that loveable cartoon characters, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, threaten public health?
It is, of course, no secret that food companies advertise kid-oriented foods on kid-oriented television shows and that media companies license their cartoon characters to food companies who use them in marketing campaigns. We must assume that such marketing is effective, otherwise companies would not do it. But that is a far cry from constituting a threat to children’s health. Despite all the arm-waving by anti-fun food groups like CSPI, there’s no persuasive evidence that typical or moderate consumption of these sorts of foods pose any sort of health threat to children. First, the IOM report trumpeted by CSPI did not examine, and therefore does not link, food marketing practices with harm to children’s health. The report merely concluded what everyone already knows – advertising works. The IOM report nevertheless does hyperventilate about the purported epidemic of childhood obesity claiming, for example, that “obesity among children and youth has tripled over the past four decades” an
