BUSINESS MAR 17 2016, 9:44 AM ET by BEN POPKEN
With the Easter bunny just hops away, six major candy companies have agreed to stop advertising to kids. The list includes two major Easter players: the makers of Peeps and Jelly Belly candies.
“America’s leading confectionery companies are committed to marketing their products responsibly, and participating in this program further solidifies that commitment,” said John H. Downs, Jr, president of the National Confectioner’s Association in a press release.
The companies are the Ferrara Candy Company, Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, Jelly Belly Candy Company, Just Born Quality Confections, The Promotion in Motion Companies, and the R.M. Palmer Company, a maker of Easter candies.
Under the program, participants will no longer advertise directly to kids under 12. They’re joining six other, larger companies, including Hershey’s, Mars and Nestlé, who in 2007 stopped marketing to children.
Food watchdogs lauded the move.
“Children are susceptible to advertising, and don’t need encouragement to like and eat candy, which promotes diabetes, obesity, tooth decay, and other health problems,” said CSPI senior nutrition policy counsel Jessica Almy in a press release.
Among the brands that will no longer advertise to kiddos are:
- Jelly Belly jelly beans Peeps
- Lemonheads
- Red Hots
- Mike and Ike
- Various Easter candies and Ghirardelli chocolate
Also included are Atomic Fireballs, which I bought with my allowance whenever I could as a kid, even though I never saw an ad for them. Their red spheres in clear plastic package beckoning to me from the store shelves with a promise of nuclear cinnamon hotness were the only hook I needed.
