ABSTRACT
The childhood obesity epidemic has prompted various regulatory measures when it comes to marketing food to children—from the industry-driven Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative and San Francisco’s ban (in 2010) on toys found in McDonald’s Happy Meals, to the World Health Organization’s 2010 Set of Recommendations on the Marketing of Foods and Non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children (WHO 2010). All of these measures seek to reduce the impact of marketing poorly nutritious foods to children—ostensibly protecting children’s health through governing their taste. Such measures generally presume that limiting the direct marketing of poorly nutritious foods to children will, in fact, change their consumption practices.
