In response to concerns about childhood obesity, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released two reports documenting food and beverage marketing expenditures to children and adolescents. The recently released 2012 report found an inflation-adjusted 19.5% reduction in marketing expenditures targeted to youth from $2.1 billion in 2006 to $1.8 billion in 2009. The current article highlights features of the FTC’s analysis, examines how expenditures relate to youth exposure to food marketing, and assesses changes in the nutritional content of marketed products. Of the $304.0 million decline in expenditures, $117.8 million (38.7%) was from a decline in premium (i.e., restaurant children’s meal toys) expenditures rather than direct marketing. Although inflation-adjusted TV expenditures fell by 19.4%, children and teens still see 12–16 TV advertisements (ads)/day for products generally high in saturated fat, sugar or sodium. In addition, newer digital forms of unhealthy food and beverage marketing to youths are increasing; the FTC reported an inflation-adjusted 50.7% increase in new media marketing expenditures. The self-regulatory Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) is limited in scope and effectiveness: expenditures increased for many noncovered marketing techniques (i.e., product placement, movie/video, cross-promotion licenses, athletic sponsorship, celebrity fees, events, philanthropy, and other); only two restaurants are members of CFBAI, and nonpremium restaurant marketing expenditures were up by $86.0 million (22.5% inflation-adjusted increase); industry pledges do not protect children aged >11 years, and some marketing appears to have shifted to older children; and, nutritional content remains poor. Continued monitoring of and improvements to food marketing to youth are needed.

PURPOSE . To describe the collaborative process between a grocery retailer and a panel of nutrition experts used to develop a nutrition guidance system (Guiding Stars) that evaluates the nutrient profile of all edible products in the supermarket, and to report the results of the food and beverage ratings. DESIGN . A collaboration between a private retailer and members of the scientific community that led to the development of a scoring algorithm used to evaluate the nutritional quality of foods and beverages. SETTING/SUBJECTS . Northeast supermarkets (n  =  160). MEASURES . Food and beverage nutrition ratings and distribution of stars across different grocery categories. ANALYSIS . Descriptive statistics for rating distributions were computed. T-tests were conducted to assess differences in mean nutrient values between foods with zero versus three stars or a dichotomized variable representing all foods with one to three stars. RESULTS . All edible grocery items (n  =  27,466) were evaluated, with 23.6% earning at least one star. Items receiving at least one star had lower mean levels of sodium, saturated fat, and sugars and higher amounts of fiber than products not earning stars. CONCLUSION . The Guiding Stars system rates edible products without regard to brand or manufacturer, and provides consumers with a simple tool to quickly identify more nutritious choices while shopping. The low percentage of products qualifying for stars reflects poorly on the food choices available to Americans.

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