October 17, 2006
Disney Says It Will Link Marketing to Nutrition
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Buzz Lightyear and Lightning McQueen will not be endorsing junk food much longer.
Walt Disney, addressing the growing concerns of parents over child nutrition, said yesterday that it would curtail the use of its name
and characters with food items that did not meet new nutritional standards. The new guidelines would limit how much sugar, calories
and fat could be in snacks and foods marketed by companies that Disney has licensing relationships with.
The move, which comes at a time of mounting worry about childhood obesity, is likely to put pressure on the company’s competitors
to follow suit. Left outside the scope of yesterday’s initiative was any mention of the considerable advertising for junk food products
that is carried on Disney’s television networks, especially Toon Disney and ABC Kids.
But the policy change was broadly hailed by food industry experts, who saw it as an important statement in the increasingly vocal
debate over what parents want their children to eat and what the food companies are trying to sell to them.
“I think this is very significant,” said Margo G. Wootan, the nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an
advocacy group in Washington. “Disney characters will not show up on Pop-Tarts, waffles and fruit snacks. This will allow parents to
feed their children more healthfully.”
In addition to the licensing restrictions, Disney said its own theme park restaurants would change the default options for side orders
from French fries to a more healthy choice, like carrots or applesauce.
For years Walt Disney has licensed its powerful brand and its lineup of characters, from Mickey Mouse to more current children’s
favorites like Buzz Lightyear from “Toy Story” and Lightning McQueen from “Cars,” to food companies like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola
and Kellogg, which sell high-calorie food products.
Kellogg, for example, sells its Apple Jacks cereal and chocolate chip Pop-Tarts with Lightning McQueen toys inside the box. These
food products would most likely not meet the new guidelines. SpongeBob SquarePants, the popular character from Nickelodeon, also
has tie-ins to Pop-Tarts and fudge cookies from Kellogg.
Childhood obesity has become a growing concern among health professionals. According to the American Obesity Association, 15.5
percent of children ages 12 to 19 are obese, a threefold increase since 1980. For children ages of 6 to 11, the figure is 15.3 percent,
twice as high as in 1980. Now, increasing nutritional awareness on the part of parents as well as public officials — Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg has backed a proposal to ban trans fat from New York City restaurants — has put a damper on such commercial
arrangements.
Disney said yesterday that the guidelines would officially kick in once the existing licensing contracts ran their course by the end of
2008. The food items that would be barred from Disney licensing deals are those in which total fat exceeds 30 percent of calories for
main and side dishes and 35 percent for snacks, saturated fat exceeds 10 percent of calories for main dishes and snacks, and
added sugar exceeds 10 percent of calories for main dishes and 25 percent for snacks.
All trans fats are to be eliminated from food at restaurants located in Disney’s theme parks by 2007 and from licensed food items by
2008.
Disney executives said yesterday the move was not aimed so much at the companies Disney is in business with as some of the
higher-calorie offerings in their portfolios. “Chicken McNuggets, French fries and Coke, they would not fit,” said Dr. James O. Hill, the
director of the Center of Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado who assisted Disney in formulating the new standards. But, he
said, salads and other less sugar-dependent products would not be prohibited.
Disney has had a longstanding relationship with McDonald’s. The company has had a licensing contract that includes McDonald’s
Happy Meals that will expire this year. And McDonald’s restaurants operate inside Disney’s theme parks.
Disney characters cover a multitude of other products that would not meet the revised standards, including sugary cereals and other
items high in calories like Pop-Tarts. “It’s a bold move,” Dr. Hill said. “If you could now get the fast-food places to do this.”
Still, the omission of any guidelines that address the advertising of junk food products on the company’s television networks —
including ABC and Toon Disney — is an indication that a ban on the marketing of unhealthy food on Disney channels is not in the
works.

October 18, 2006
Editorial
A Treat Worthy of Cinderella

With obesity rates soaring among the young, the Walt Disney Company has announced promising new guidelines for the way it promotes food to its impressionable clientele. Over the next two years, the company that brought you Buzz Lightyear and Goofy and the Lion King plans to make sure that its animated characters endorse healthier children’s foods with less fat and sugar and fewer calories.
Disney has also begun revamping menus in its theme parks with the goal of abolishing trans fats and offering applesauce or other healthy side dishes to children. French fries — and sweets — will still be available on request. How can you enjoy Disneyland without a little ice cream? But Disney’s kingdoms also promise pure juice, water, and real fruits and vegetables — unsugared, unreconstituted, undoctored.
Disney should work to take the next step by limiting the overload of junk food advertising on its television shows for Toon Disney and ABC Kids. But this first move is a good one, and it should send a strong signal to other corporations.
Childhood obesity has tripled in the last 25 years. There are many cures for this: more physical activity than television time, for example. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also warned that “current food and beverage marketing practices
put children’s long-term health at risk.”
At this point, the Bush administration and Congress seem content to keep studying the problem. Some corporations have used that as an excuse to continue peddling ultra-sweet cereals and high-fructose drinks. Others have made a few feeble efforts to promote
healthier eating to children. It’s heartening that a few, mainly Kraft and now Disney, recognize that we can’t wait forever for Congress to act, and are actually doing something now.

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