Campaigning for a Commercial-Free Childhood

What You Can Do

Josh Golin, CCFC Program Manager

Bring the movement to protect children from harmful marketing to your community by starting your own chapter of CCFC.
Support the activities of our member organizations (e.g. participate in TV-Turnoff Week; circulate the TRUCE Toy Action Guide; join the Dads and Daughters Action Network).
Send us suggestions (ccfc<at>commercialfreechildhood.org) for actions you’d like us to take on.
Support the following CCFC campaigns:

A Statement on the Rights of Children, Families, and Food Marketers

Recently, major food companies, such as Kraft, Kellogg's and General Mills, joined with the advertising industry to form the Alliance for American Advertising, a lobbying group "to defend the right to advertise to children." In response, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has drafted a Statement on the Rights of Children, Families, and Food Marketers. The statement has already been endorsed by leading experts in child development, nutrition, and public health, as well as more than 50 organizations.

What you can do: Go to http://www.commercialexploitation.org/actions/statementonrights.htm and add your name to the growing alliance of those who value children more than the bottom line. Then forward the statement to friends and family and help us demonstrate the strength of the movement to protect children from commercial exploitation.

Urge Congress to Restore the Federal Trade Commission’s Authority to Regulate Marketing to Children

In 1978, after a thorough review of research that demonstrated marketing to young children is inherently unfair because they do not understand its persuasive intent, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a ban on advertising to children under eight. Worried about losing access to a lucrative market, the affected industries lobbied Congress and their efforts were rewarded. Congress sided with corporations over the public interest, and, in 1980, passed the "FTC Improvement Act," which severely curtailed the FTC’s power to regulate advertising to children. Since then, child-directed marketing has escalated exponentially with virtually no government oversight. Under current law, it’s more difficult to regulate advertising to children than to adults!

Last year, Senator Tom Harkin introduced legislation called the HeLP America Act included a provision to restore the FTC’s authority to regulate marketing to children. Senator Harkin plans to reintroduce the HeLP America Act in the coming weeks and CCFC will be mobilizing grassroots support for the bill.

What you can do: After Senator Harkin reintroduces his FTC bill (we’ll let you know when he does), write and call your Representatives and Senators and urge them to support this crucial legislation. You may also wish to visit your representatives’ offices to educate them about the harms associated with marketing to children and the importance of reestablishing a regulatory structure to fight back against unchecked advertisers. We’ll help you coordinate your visits with other CCFC members in your area and provide educational materials to bring with you.

Challenge the Effectiveness of Self-Regulation

Defenders of child-directed marketing frequently argue that government regulation is not needed because the industry has its own regulatory body, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU). What they often fail to mention, however, is that CARU has only five full-time employees to monitor a $15 billion industry; that CARU does not monitor in-school marketing, product placement, or many of the latest marketing techniques; and that the agency has no enforcement powers. Last year, a report by the Motherhood Project found “A glaring gap between what the advertising industry says about self-regulation - and what it actually does.”

What you can do: An important step towards demonstrating the need for more regulation of child-directed marketing is to show that the advertising industry’s current system of self-regulation is ill-equipped to address the concerns of parents and advocates for children’s well-being. If you see marketing that you believe is inappropriate for children, let the Children’s Advertising Review Unit know. Send them an email at caru@caru.bbb.org and be sure to copy CCFC (ccfc<at>commercialfreechildhood.org). Let them know where and when you saw the advertisement (including the channel and program if it was on television), the product being advertised, and what you found objectionable. Reasons to contact CARU include:

Marketing that encourages unhealthy eating habits;
Marketing that uses sex or violence to make a product attractive to children;
Marketing designed to undermine parental authority or to get children to nag their parents for products;
Marketing that promotes questionable values for children

It is important to note that you do not need to be familiar with CARU’s principle and guidelines in order to send them a complaint. The purpose of this campaign is to not determine whether CARU is meeting its own standards, but whether the agency is meeting your standards. So even if you see marketing that does not necessarily fall under CARU’s jurisdiction (e.g. in-school advertising), please let CARU know about your concerns. If CARU responds that they do monitor the type of marketing you are concerned about, that is more evidence that the current system of self-regulation does not adequately protect children.

Protect Children from Coke’s Marketing Machine

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is working with the Make TIAA-CREF Ethical coalition to convince TIAA-CREF, the nation’s largest retirement fund, to pressure corporations to be more socially responsible – and to divest from companies that refuse to change their practices.

We are urging TIAA-CREF to pressure Coca-Cola to change their marketing practices. Despite their claims that they do not advertise to children under twelve, Coke designs toys for young children, markets their products extensively in schools to children of all ages, and its product placement is ubiquitous on programs like American Idol, one of the top-rated shows for children. Coca-Cola lobbies extensively against policies that would help combat childhood obesity (such as prohibitions on vending machines in schools) and even denies that soft drinks are contributing to health problems for children. Currently, TIAA-CREF has substantial holdings in Coca-Cola.

What you can do: Call TIAA-CREF CEO Herbert Allison at 800-842-2733 (Calls are best, but you can also email HAllison@tiaa-cref.org). If you have a TIAA-CREF account, let him know. Then urge TIAA-CREF to pressure Coca-Cola to end ALL marketing – including Coke toys, in-school marketing, and product placement – aimed at children.

Josh Golin (josh<at>commercialfreechildhood.org) is the program manager at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood at the Judge Baker Children’s Center.