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Conference: obesity lawsuits should focus on ads, children; food manufacturers to be sued for false advertisement
Public health advocates and lawyers looking to use the judicial and legislative systems to combat obesity in the United States said they would focus on suing food manufacturers and restaurant companies for false advertising, particularly as it applies to children. Presenters at the Public Health Advocacy Institute's third annual Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic conference, held Sept. 24-25 at Northeastern University here, also criticized food and restaurant companies that already had modified their products or menus. Several participants expressed disdain for quick-service restaurants' efforts to provide more healthful options to consumers, calling them insincere marketing tactics. "Ronald McDonald is not your friend," said Richard Daynard, associate dean of the Northeastern University School of Law. Daynard also is chairman of the Obesity and Law Project of the Public Health Advocacy Institute, the event's sponsor. Others portrayed the burger giant's marketing efforts to promote fitness as attempts to deceive children into believing that McDonald's food was good for them. Children, in fact, formed the focus of the conference, as participants discussed possible lawsuits that would attempt to punish food and restaurant companies for their kid-oriented marketing tactics. Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, criticized McDonald's for encouraging reading as well as trustworthiness, responsibility, fairness and respect--which she called "McValues"--because she said the restaurant shouldn't be marketing to children in the first place. Linn and other presenters said such promotions constituted deceptive advertising because they associate food high in sugar or fat with healthy lifestyles.
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