Goodies And Baddies of Kids Food Industry 2014

Embargoed till 1pm today

Annoucing the Goodies And the Baddies of the Kids Food Industry for 2014

Weetbix are the goodies and Coca Cola and McDonald's are the baddies.

Weetbix TRYalthlon wins the new Supreme Award decided by our panel of judges and voted by the people as the winner in the Best Kids Food Marketing Campaign.

The campaign related to encouraging kids to eat a healthy breakfast and compete in local triathlons. ‘The Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon inspires children to get moving in a friendly and supportive environment where the emphasis is on enjoying the experience as part of an active lifestyle rather than competition.’

Below are some voter comments.

'Promotes teamwork exercise with healthy breakfast'

'Good breakfast staple with a good fitness message'

Again (with a landslide) McDonalds and Coca Cola are the baddies of the kids food industry.

McDonalds was the winner in the Worst Kids Food Marketing Campaign for their Happy Meals. The issues were around the link between rewarding a child with a toy and unhealthy food choices.

Below are some voter comments.

'Insidious marketing of unethical company & unhealthy food .... While developing a habit that will continue into adulthood'

'Worse thing you can feed your kids!'

Parents from around New Zealand also voted in Coca Cola as the Worst kids food product.

See voter comments below.

'Sugary drinks just shouldn't be marketed to kids'

'Sugar !!! Need I say more'

The other categories and winners are below

• Best Kids Food Product - Copy Kids DVD

• Best Kids Food Blog - Better Snacks

• Best Kids Menu - Picnic Cafe Wellington

• Best Kids Kitchen Product - Mum2mum Bibs

Tonight the website will display the resultswww.munchawards.co.nz. Also the nominees will be contacted about the results.

About the Munch Awards

The Munch Awards aim to raise awareness of the following;

• What foods are good and bad for our kids

• The techniques that advertisers use to promote unhealthy food to our kids

• Who is offering great food menus for kids

• To recognise the advertisements that promotes healthy food to children in a fun and appealing way

• What kitchen products are good for our kids

• The best of what parents have to say about kids food through blogs

It was launched in September 2013 and was a great success. Please head to our website for more information on this years campaign www.munchcooking.com. Note that parents were asked to nominate over a 3 week period followed by 3 weeks for parents to vote on our site. The judges then decided on the winners from the categories for the Supreme Award.

Some general facts:

• According to research, obese children have a 25-50% chance of becoming obese adults and this chance increases to 78% for obese teens.

• In Australia research undertaken by the Obesity Policy Coalition suggests that nearly 9 in 10 people are in favour of the government introducing stronger restrictions to reduce the amount of unhealthy food and drink advertising seen by children.

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