Kraft Foods, Inc. has once again come under the watchful eye of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit for a TV commercial about one of its Lunchables products.
CARU said the spot focused on the chicken pieces in Kraft’s Lunchables Chicken Shake-Ups, which let kids shake BBQ or nacho cheese flavors on to chicken nuggets, and did not feature other food items that would show a balanced diet. CARU said it was concerned that kids watching might think that chicken alone constitutes a balanced meal.
CARU said that Kraft has agreed to present its Lunchables lunch combinations in the context of a balanced meal by showing food from four of the five food groups in its future advertising.
CARU’s self-regulatory guidelines state: “Advertisements representing mealtime should clearly and adequately depict the role of the product within the framework of a balanced diet.” The organization said that the ad came to its attention during routine monitoring.
CARU said that Kraft objected to its process in this case, referring to it as “rulemaking by adjudication.” Kraft said that CARU did not follow its established process of multidisciplinary consultation before announcing changes to its guidelines, CARU said.
Officials at Kraft could not be reached for comment.
CARU also looked into disclosure issues related to Kraft’s advertising.
Earlier this month, Kraft Foods agreed to add a prominent disclosure on its promotions home page that proofs of purchase are required for entry into its Cheesiest Kid in America 2005 contest. TV ads for the contest had earlier come under CARU scrutiny for disclosure issues.
In a separate development, Kraft Foods Global, Inc., has agreed to discontinue a Post cereal print ad that focused on a premium, Postokens, and not the product. The ad appeared in the September 2005 edition of Sports Illustrated for Kids.
A similar ad was challenged one year ago by the Center for Science in the public interest, a nutrition advocacy organization, through CARU.
CARU’s guidelines state that “Children have trouble distinguishing product from premium. If product advertising contains a premium message, care should be taken that the child’s attention is focused primarily on the product. The premium message should be clearly secondary.” At the time, Kraft said it would modify its ads.
Kraft said that the most recent Post cereal ad was placed prior to its work with CARU on similar issues, and then overlooked, CARU said.
