Mickey Mouse wants to help kids kick the junk food habit. The Walt Disney Company announced that it plans to advertise only healthier foods to kid. By 2015, all food and drink products that are advertised on its TV channels, radio stations and websites will have to meet the company's nutrition standard for limiting calories and reducing fat, sodium and sugar. Many foods, such as fruit drinks, candy and snack cakes, won't meet the standard. First Lady Michelle Obama called it a "game changer". "Disney is doing what no major media company has ever done before in the US - and what I hope every company will do in the future." "This is a landmark , because a major media company is taking responsibility for what food they advertise to children," says Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "This should be a real wake-up call to Nickelodeon(an American children's channel) and the Cartoon Network to do the same." But the company will still be able to advertise "better-for-you versions of products that are not perfectly nutritious." Under the new standards, breakfast cereals that are advertised will have to contain fewer than 10 grams of sugar in a serving, Wootan says. "That's a good step forward, but it's not perfectly nutritious." Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, says Disney is making this move "at perhaps some risk of affecting their incomes, so that's why we should praise them." Food marketing is really "important because it shapes the way kids are fed," Wootan says. "If we don't deal with food marketing to kids, we don't have any chance of addressing childhood obesity." Currently, a third of children are overweight, putting them at a greater risk for serious health problems. At its theme parks, Disney began offering healthier kids' meals, serving carrots and other vegetables, fruits, low-fat milk and yogurt at meals, instead of fries and soft drinks. What does Margo Wootan think of Disney's new move?
He thinks it is a risk. He thinks very highly of it. He thinks it will get wide support. He thinks it will affect their income.