Hold the Advertising?

A TV ad featuring the "Burger King Kids Club."

"A ban on fast-food advertising to children would cut the national obesity rate by as much as 18%, according to a new study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research and funded by the National Institutes of Health," reports Emily Bryson York. The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a front group for the restaurant and fast-food industry, has responded by calling the study "erroneous" because one of the study's authors acknowledges that "a lot of people consume fast food in moderate amounts and it doesn't harm their health" (as though this observation contradicts the study's findings in any way whatsoever). Previous studies have reached similar conclusions (and have likewise been attacked by CCF).