Junk Food Industry Applies Tobacco's PR Strategies [1]
Submitted by Anne Landman [2] on
The $70 billion Australian junk food industry is now applying PR strategies [3] originally developed by the tobacco industry [4] in a bid to avoid government regulation. Australia's federal government is readying a report about reducing obesity, which could lead to higher taxes on unhealthy foods and a ban on junk food advertising. In anticipation, junk and snack food companies are playing down the health risks of their products, adopting voluntary advertising codes [5], producing "healthier" smaller and lower-sugar versions of candies and chocolate bars, arranging for food industry representatives to sit on regulatory boards, and funding educational programs to try to look like good corporate citizens [6]. For example, McDonald's [7] started providing free online math tutorials [8] for children, similar to cigarette companies' youth education and prevention programs [9], launched to blunt the push for regulation. One leading health source noticed the resemblance between the food industry's tactics to those employed by Big Tobacco [10]: ''Deny the evidence, delay, infiltrate yourself into governments, have big lobbying outfits, work through voluntary codes. It's the same techniques."