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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Coco Pops update


On Wednesday night I went to a meeting of The parliamentary food and health forum which is a cross party group. The subject was breakfast clubs and a speaker from Kelloggs was invited to give a presentation about the breakfast clubs they run. It was a great opportunity to question Kelloggs directly about the appalling "ever thought of coco pops after school?" ads they are running at key sites near schools.

I object to the adverts because:

1) Coco pops are a high sugar food - 34% sugar. Given most children consume more than enough sugar a day it seems irresponsible to encourage children to eat a second helping after school.

2) Dressing the coco pops monkey in school uniform is seen by many as a sublimal attempt to associate a high sugar product with the move to make schools healthier. Ironic when you consider coco pops does not meet the nutritional standards for schools so is not allowed to be served in school breakfast clubs

3)Kelloggs are a Change4Life partner and claim to be playing a role in improving children's health. This advert which encourages children to eat another bowl of the sugary cereal makes a nonsense of the change4life goal of encouraging sugar swaps ( ie substituting a high fat or sugar product such as confectionery for a piece of fruit or wholemeal toast.

When I put these points to the Kelloggs nutritionist she accepted that the campaign had been a mistake and that the ads were now taken down. She did not accept my point about the irresponsibility of encouraging children to ask for extra sugar and trotted out the weary claim that a portion of coco pops contains no more sugar than 2 slices of toast and jam. However I was able to explain how inaccurate portion sizes are as in my own personal experience I have measured portions that children pour out and they are at least 2 or 3 times greater than the recommended 30g (which barely covers the bttom of a small cereal bowl)

Although the bus stop ads appear to have been taken down in Merton I have still seen a large poster in Streatham.

So what can we do?

1) Email Kelloggs to tell them that this campaign must never be repeated
2) If you spot an ad, please leave me a comment with its location
3) Compose your own coco pops slogan! Click here.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Go Jackie! That is great campaigning!

Jabulani said...

Congratulations on your sterling efforts. Ordinarily, I refuse to let my children eat coco pops/Frosties, whatever (nasty mom that I am!) because of the sugar issue. I'll allow a handful of Cheerios as an addition to either Shreddies, Cornflakes, Weetabix or All Bran for breakfast, or as a dry snack when they come home from school on the day they have swimming lessons because I know they will be working it off later. The only time they ever get anything else is when we're on holiday and I know I can watch their food intake during the day to compensate.

We school governors campaigned hard for hot meals. They are due to begin sometime in March. It's going to be an interesting process because I believe the cost of these is going to govern the popularity. But I'd SOOOO like to be proved wrong. I just won't hold my breath. Our school achieved Healthy Schools Status last year and we try very hard to ensure that lunchboxes are healthy. However, we do still get the kids who come in with jam sandwiches, can of coke/lucozade, chocolate bar and bag of crisps!! You can't tell parents what to put in a lunchbox afterall.

Oh, and my other bugbear, sugar free products. Seriously? You (generic) think saccharine and aspartame are suitable alternatives to sugar do you?? I'm just gonna sit here for the next 50 years and see where we are with this particular debate... Actually that's a lie. I'll spend the next 50 years saying "Have 1 glass of pure fruit juice a day and then move onto water." What's wrong with water? If you're going to spend your money on drink, buy water. Better yet, get it out the flippin' tap!!

Evidence Matters said...

Couldn't agree more. Kelloggs is behaving badly about this & making a nonsense of promoting the public understanding of food and health by claiming that there is an equivalence between an unrealistically tiny portion of CoCo Pops (30g) & 2 pieces of toast w. jam (2 med slices of toast = 66g + 10g jam).

Hackney Hackette said...

I saw a busstop ad in Buckingham 2 weeks ago, after a Kellogg's PR person said they had taken them down. (They said they did this because the campaign was over not due to any concerns).
I must admit that I ate Cocopops for breakfast every day when I was at primary school, changing to Fruit and Fibre aged about 11 after a visit to a friend of my mum's who immpressed me with her sophistication in breakfast cereals and other things. No probs with obesity, tooth decay or hyperactivity. But I wouldn't let my son (two) have them - he has porridge. That probably makes me a bit of a hypocrite. But I do think the after school thing is pushing it.

matt said...

Jackie,
I totally agree with you! At what point will corporations like Kellogs be held accountable for polluting and possibly addicting our children? Morgan Spurlock makes a similar case against McDonalds in the Super Size Me. These companies specifically target young people and are intent on having this population hooked for life.

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auto insurance quotes said...

I honestly think that many people involved in serving food in schools do not care at all. for only 10p you could serve a lovely home made soup, but no soups are nowhere near.

Another thing. The other day, aperantly the head mistress of a very posh girls school made a moving speech about how much they care about their ethnic identity and respect other people's religion and for lunch there were not a single item in the menu that did not have pork, bacon or sausage in them. She does not even know what is going on in her kitchen or she is just an ass.

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