How Pizza Hut and other fast food companies teach school kids

Wednesday, September 23 2009 05:00 | By Rebecca Boyle |

pizzahut23 Hey kids! If you read enough books this month, you'll get some free pizza. That's the message from Pizza Hut, which is pushing it's BookIt! program. The program - which anyone who grew up in the 1980s likely remembers - motivates kids to read "by rewarding their reading accomplishments with praise, recognition and pizza."

But a new bill in Congress could change how food companies market food that's considered unhealthy to elementary-school kids, even as the food industry says it is policing itself.

The Better Business Bureau, working with more than a dozen food companies, recently announced a new set of guidelines companies can follow to market junk food in elementary schools.

The guidelines prohibit posters, book covers and coupons as methods of advertising any food or beverage. Burger King, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Hershey Company and McDonald's are among the companies involved. Pizza Hut's parent company is not included, but the BookIt! program would still be allowed under the new limitations.

The limitations don't limit very much.

Under the guidelines, a food company can still use its logo and marketing materials if it's actually selling the food in schools. Or if the company wants to sponsor an event or a public service message. Or if it decides to help with a fundraiser, even if kids are selling the products. Or ... hold on, isn't this supposed to be an initiative to limit junk-food advertising?

"The Initiative's focus is on restricting advertising, not the sale, of the participants' food and beverage products in elementary schools," the document says. (Emphasis theirs.)

So, while book covers and posters are out, plenty of overt marketing-tied-to-sales is still considered OK, including vending machine exteriors; cafeteria tray liners; display racks and menu boards.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit group, said the BBB should go "back to the chalk board."

The group's nutrition policy director, Margo G. Wootan, said food-rewards programs like BookIt! promote childhood obesity and set a bad precedent by rewarding good behavior with junk food.

Meanwhile, U.S. Reps. Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat, and Todd Platt, a Republican from Pennsylvania, introduced a bill Tuesday that would require the U.S. Department of Education and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the nutritional quality of junk food marketed to young kids.

Odds are that a Personal Pan Pizza won't get the highest marks.

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