A coalition of health groups is calling on Nickelodeon to stop airing commercials that promote unhealthy foods. The Hill reports that the groups urged the channel and its parent company, Viacom, to implement strong nutrition standards for the foods marketed on Nickelodeon and by its shows’ characters. SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer should not be licensed to advertise foods like imitation fruit snacks or Popsicles, the American Academy of Pediatrics and others wrote. “Research shows that food marketing is an important factor contributing to children’s poor diets and obesity,” the letter stated. “The majority of foods marketed to children remain of poor nutritional quality. The [federal Institute of Medicine] concluded that marketing puts children’s health at risk.”
Federal judges rule that ban on off-label marketing violates freedom of speech
The New York Times reports that a federal appeals court threw out the conviction of a drug company sales representative who sold a drug for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In a case that could have broad ramifications for the pharmaceutical industry, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan ruled that the ban on so-called off-label marketing violated the representative’s freedom of speech. In recent years, drug companies have paid billions of dollars in penalties to the federal government after being accused of marketing blockbuster drugs for off-label uses.
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