The bipartisan group of lawmakers led by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) made the request in a June 17 letter addressed to FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan and four other commissioners. It urged the FTC to update its decade-old report on food marketing to children and adolescents, emphasizing the need to address the rapidly evolving landscape of digital advertising.
"We are alarmed by the proliferation of unhealthy food and beverage marketing directed toward children across online platforms," the letter read. "Such marketing can impact children's food preferences, purchase requests [and] consumption patterns, and could ultimately contribute to unhealthy eating patterns that increase the risk of chronic disease."
The lawmakers characterized the need for regulatory action as urgent, in light of projected increases in childhood diabetes rates and the billions spent annually on influencer marketing. "We appreciate the FTC's consideration of this letter and we hope to see [the commission] further its work to protect children from online marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages," the letter continued.
The correspondence by Booker and his colleagues in Congress zoomed in on two particular aspects of this online marketing. First, they expressed worry about how companies target ads to children in different socioeconomic and demographic groups. They cited a study that found Black children were exposed to between 86 and 119 percent more food and beverage TV ads than their White peers.
Second, they highlighted the growing role of social media influencers in promoting unhealthy foods to young audiences. "There are countless recent examples of influencers on TikTok promoting food and beverage products where it is not always made clear the influencer is being paid to promote these products or has a material connection to the brand," the lawmakers noted.
Companies spend BILLIONS to bombard kids with ads
Lindsey Smith Taillie, associate professor at the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Global Public Health, put in her two cents on the effects of digital marketing for unhealthy foods in an April op-ed published in The Hill.
She recounted how her four-year-old child saw an ad for a candy brand during Super Bowl 2024. Two weeks after that, Taillie's child still remembered the ad – and right in time for their supermarket visit.
"A 30-second commercial seems harmless. However, new research shows that food marketing to kids is more than a nuisance. It's a key driver of poor diets," Taillie wrote. (Related: Junk food ads on TV strongly influence children's eating habits.)
"Food marketing impacts what kids like, buy and eat – increasing the risk of dental caries, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Like tobacco, tighter regulation of junk food marketing to children is needed to protect their health."
According to her, digital marketing is particularly worrisome as it does not look like marketing. This "disguised" promotion, she added, "limits kids' ability to distinguish these marketing techniques from unbranded content."
Taillie ultimately concluded: "Food marketing hooks kids on unhealthy foods, creating poor eating habits that can last a lifetime. Children deserve to live, learn and play free from the influence of the junk food industry, [and] regulations on food marketing can help."
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Sources include:
Booker.Senate.gov [PDF]
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